Stop Hating
by toledodj
Summary: Alright peeps! Here it is: MY FIRST PUBLISHED NOVEL! u can either buy it online or save ur money and read it RIGHT NOW for just the price of a good review lol. The plot is simple...two gay guys fall in love and people disapprove of it. read and review plz


Stop Hating

Page 56

Stop Hating

Chapter 1:

Jesse Andrews opened his eyes slightly as the reflection of the sun beamed into them. He slowly moved the bed sheets from around his body and then turned his legs towards the floor until his bare feet touched the cold wooden surface. Jesse wiped his eyes twice to make sure that the sun's rays hadn't blinded him. Finally he stood up and looked outside his bedroom window. It was a beautiful Sunday morning. The leaves on the trees blossomed as flowers grew in the neighbors yards. Jesse smiled as birds flew through the sky gracefully.

He had only one window to look out of. Jesse's room was in the attic, which was the only vacant area throughout the whole two bedroom house. Jesse lived with his older brother Mark and his girlfriend Kristine. He was forced to live with them after their parents died in a car accident. They were on their way back home from San Diego, California. It was their 21st wedding anniversary and they were still drunk from the surprise party that Jesse's grandmother had made for them. And while his father was driving on the wrong side of the street, a truck came speeding down the road. Without even a chance to switch lanes, the two vehicles smacked into one another. The truck driver survived the crash, Jesse's parents didn't.

After the funeral, three days later, Jesse's social worker had asked if there was anyone that the boy could live with. Gladly, Jesse's brother Mark came from his college in Cleveland and offered to care for the sixteen-year-old. After a long period of negotiation, the social worker allowed him to care for his younger sibling as long as he could find a decent job and a home. They even offered to provide him with these needs.

It has been only one year since that day. Jesse cleaned his room and prepared for the day. He went through his daily routine of taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and combing his blonde hair. He then went back into his room and put on a pair of his favorite Roca Wear jeans with a button-up, short sleeve shirt with a white T-shirt underneath. He finally took a look into the mirror sitting on his dresser.

"It's not perfect, but it'll do," he said while pulling his T-shirt downward.

Jesse walked quietly down the attic stairs and crept through the hallway leading to Mark's room. He peeked inside and saw that Mark had already left for work. Kristine was still asleep in the bed, snoring as if she were a growling dog. Jesse ignored her and went into the downstairs living room. He sat on the couch and turned on the television using the remote control. His favorite Nickelodeon show, "Spongebob Squarepants", was on. It was the episode in which Spongebob and Squidward had to work the night shift. While the show was on, Jesse made himself a bowl of Cookie Crisp cereal. He then went back into the living room and sat the bowl on the table as he sat back on the couch. He wanted to enjoy this day as much as possible before Kristine woke up. For some reason, she did not like Jesse very much. Either she was jealous of him or she was just plain mean. Whatever the case, Jesse wanted to completely avoid getting in Kristine's way, otherwise he would regret it.

By the time the show ended, Jesse was fast asleep. As he slept he dreamed the same dream as he usually had. It was a regular school day and he was acting his old, moppy, depressed self. As he walked through the hallway, not paying any attention as to where he was going, Jesse bumped into another male student he'd never seen before. He turned around and came face to face with the person. Jesse was amazed when he saw that the boy was his identical.

"Who are you?" Jesse asked.

"You don't recognize me! I'm you," the person replied.

"What do you mean?" he asked, obviously confused by what this boy was saying to him.

"I'm you in the near future," he replied again.

"Are you really?" Jesse asked.

"No. But it was a good cover-up though. I'm actually your conscience here to tell you what your destiny is…or do you already know?" the person asked.

"I'm going to be a movie producer, right?" Jesse asked.

"Well yes, but that's not what I'm here for," the person said.

"Then what is it?" he asked.

"You mean you don't know? In every dream you've ever had since you were thirteen, haven't they been about you dating the same sex?" The boy wondered.

"Yeah, but I thought it was just a dream," he said hesitantly.

"Well, yes, it is a dream. But it was a dream that predicts your future. It's called a premonition,"

"I had a premonition? Well what does it mean?" Jesse finally asked.

"It means that you are a homosexual and that you will meet someone who will change your life," The person answered as he suddenly began to fade away.

"Wait! How will I know who it is?" Jesse asked as his dream faded completely.

"Who what is?" he heard Kristine say.

Jesse opened his eyes and nearly quailed in terror as he saw his brother's girlfriend staring at him while holding an unlit cigarette in her left hand. Her face was covered in some gooey green slime. She reached into the right pocket of her house coat and pulled out a lighter. Finally, Kristine lit the cigarette and placed it into her mouth.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked as she blew the smoke out of her breath and in Jesse's face.

"Nothing," he said. "Hey, you know that stuff can kill you, right?"

Kristine gave him a careless look as she continued to placed the object into her mouth and inhale the nicotine.

"And I guess that means nothing to you, does it?" Jesse said.

Kristine nodded and snatched the remote out of Jesse's hand as she sat next to him. She began flicking through channels, trying to find something to watch. Jesse got up out of his seat and grabbed the empty cereal bowl he'd laid on the table before falling asleep. He then walked into the kitchen, placed the bowl into the sink and washed it out under the hot faucet water. Afterwards, Jesse went upstairs into his room and sat at his desk as he got on the Internet. His main objective was to find out any information he could about teenage homosexuality and how to deal with it.

He found a great deal of information on the subject. He actually wished that he could print it all out, but unfortunately he didn't own a printer. Whilst continuing his search, Jesse was able to find a book or guide available for gay teens called, "What If Someone I Know Is Gay." He then checked the website of his neighborhood library to see if they had the book in stock. He was lucky to find that they only had one item available. After registering his library card, Jesse was able to ask the library to put the book on hold. He then immediately logged off the computer and grabbed his jacket as he walked to the library.

Once he'd finally reached his destination, Jesse walked slowly to the information desk. He asked the librarian about the book and they were nice enough to show him where it is. After the librarian had given Jesse the book, he immediately went back to his desk.

"Thank you!" Jesse shouted softly but loud enough for the man to hear him.

Jesse sat at a vacant table near the bookshelves as he began to read the book. As he read, he learned that homosexuality is not a choice nor is it an illness, but that it is a way of life that cannot be changed through therapy, prayer, or any other unnecessary measures. He also found tips on "coming out of the closet" and how people would supposedly react after finding out something like this. After he was finished reading the book, Jesse placed it back onto the shelf and looked around for more information. He suddenly came across two books with similar titles. The first book was titled "Rainbow Boys" while its obvious sequel was titled "Rainbow High". The two novels are about the hard lives of three homosexual boys. Without hesitation, Jesse grabbed the two books off of the shelf and headed towards the check-out counter.

The librarian at the desk asked to see Jesse's library card. Jesse reached into his wallet and took the required item out and handed it to the librarian. After being approved to take the books out, the librarian returned the card to its rightful owner as he swiftly went through the check-out process. After placing the items into a plastic bag, Jesse was on his way home.

Chapter 2:

By the time he'd returned home it was around 3:00 in the afternoon. Jesse opened the door of his brother's house and was amazed to see that it was a complete mess. Kristine was asleep upstairs. Jesse could only suspect that she deliberately trashed the house only so that he could clean it up. He could never understand why she disliked him so much. Ever since he'd come to live with her and Mark, she gained the intentional will to make Jesse's life a living hell. Maybe she was just jealous because Mark had more sympathy for his brother than he did his girlfriend. But why wouldn't she want the relationship between the brothers to grow, considering how much time they spend together. Whatever reason, there was no excuse for her to mess the entire house. She was at least 19-years-old, old enough to know better.

After cleaning the entire house from top to bottom, Jesse slowly dragged his feet across the floor as he went upstairs into his room, meanwhile, carrying the books in his right hand. Once he'd finally entered his room, he fell onto his bed and lay his head on his pillow in exhaustion. It had taken him exactly two hours to clean up. Jesse then reached into the plastic library bag and took out the two books. He decided to read the first book of the two part series. After reading the beginning, Jesse easily found that the main characters of the story were not all that different from him. For one thing they were all gay and so was he, and they were all trying to "fit in" with society. Jesse wasn't exactly sure how society would accept him, but if it was as bad as in this book, then he was going to be facing a lot of problems.

It was now around 6:00 in the evening, time for Mark to come home from work. Jesse looked outside his window as the lights from Marks car shined against the garage. Kristine awoke finally as she heard her boyfriend shut off the engine. She jetted out of bed and jumped into the shower. Mark opened the door and walked inside.

"I'm home," he said as he took off his jacket.

"Honey! I'm in the shower," Kristine shouted.

"Hurry up! I've got something to tell you!" Mark announced. "Is Jesse here?"

"Yeah, I'm in my room! Be down in a sec!" Jesse replied.

Mark paced the floor waiting for Jesse and Kristine to come downstairs. Once they had finally gotten into the living room, Mark drew a big smile on his face.

"You're not going to believe this…" he continued, "but I got promoted to assistant manager!"

Jesse and Kristine stared at each other and then back at Mark with appalled looks on their faces; their mouths nearly touched the floor.

"OH MY GOD!" they both yelled as they ran to hug Mark.

"Now we can finally get our own place and never pay rent again," Mark replied in excitement.

"Let's all go out to dinner and celebrate," Jesse insisted.

"Ok, go get ready," Mark commanded.

The two people left the room at high speeds, rushing to get ready. Once they'd gotten ready, they all went out to Applebee's for dinner.

After dinner was over, the family left the restaurant and decided to take a walk in the park. Jesse didn't really feel like walking. He sat on the rocks near the pond, thinking to himself. Mark and Kristine watched him from a nearby bench.

"Poor kid. Our parents used to bring us down to this park all the time when we were kids," Mark said in sympathy, staring at his brother.

"Listen, I've been thinking…," Kristine added, "maybe you trying to be a fatherly figure towards Jesse isn't working out all that much,"

"What do you mean?" Mark asked.

"Well, this morning he completely destroyed the entire house and left it there for me to clean up. It took me two hours to clean the mess that he made," Kristine lied successfully.

"I'll go talk to him," Mark replied.

He got out of his seat and walked over to Jesse. He then sat down next to his younger brother.

"How's it going, Champ?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about some things," Jesse answered, wiping the tears from under his eyes.

"Mom and Dad?" Mark wondered, "Listen, I understand your pain and its okay to cry. But that's no reason for messing up the house,"

"What are you talking about?" Jesse asked in obvious shock.

"Kristine told me about how you destroyed the house and left it there for her to clean it up. That's not right," Mark replied.

"That bitch! That conniving slut!" Jesse chuckled in laughter.

"Hey! Watch your mouth, okay. That's my girlfriend," Mark exclaimed making it clear that he didn't like what was said about his girl.

"I'm sorry. But I didn't mess up the house. In fact, I wasn't even at home to mess up the house. I was at the library. Kristine trashed the place and left it for me to clean," Jesse explained the honest-to-God truth.

"So now you're calling Kristine a liar, huh," Mark said angrily, "that's real low and irresponsible,"

"But it's the truth. I was at the library all day," Jesse tried hard to explain, but Mark was not listening at all.

"That's it! First, I want you to apologize to Kristine for trying to put the blame on her and then you are grounded for a week," he demanded.

"Why are you treating me like a child? I'm 17 now, remember," Jesse asked.

"Because until you learn to take responsibility for your own actions that's exactly what you are, a child," Mark replied.

"I really don't like your girlfriend," Jesse announced.

"Well get used to her because she's not going anywhere,"

Jesse got up and walked over toward Kristine in anger and humiliation.

"I'm sorry, Kristine," he said hesitantly.

"Apology accepted," she said in a pathetic tone and a smile on her face.

Jesse walked passed the deceitful woman in anger. He was mainly upset by how Mark had taken her word against his. He got into the car and waited until Mark and Kristine entered the vehicle a few seconds later. It was a silent ride home as no one said anything at all. Kristine sat in the passenger seat with a small grin on her face. She loved the fact that the two brothers weren't getting along. Once they had finally arrived home, Jesse immediately went into his room and slammed the door.

"He really has some anger issues to work out," Kristine commented.

"He's just a little stressed. He'll soon get over it," Mark explained, "but in the meantime, why don't you and I finish celebrating upstairs."

"OOOO, I'd like that," she replied.

The couple ran upstairs into the bedroom and closed the door shut. They hardly even made it to the bed as they began kissing each other, meanwhile, ripping each other's clothes off. The two eventually fell right on the bed and got under the covers as they made love.

Jesse entered his room and let out all of his anger by doing push-ups and sit-ups. As he exercised, he could feel all of stress just flowing away. He finally got off of the ground and concentrated on reading his book. But as time went by, the book eventually began to get boring and Jesse found it very difficult to keep focus as he dozed off to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed a horrible nightmare. In it, he stood in the boy's locker room of his school…completely naked. Every boy in the room laughed spontaneously at him as he desperately tried to cover his private area. But everything soon got better as everyone cleared out of the room still laughing, everyone except for one person. He was around 5 feet 7 inches tall and looked to weigh about 153pounds or less. He didn't have any clothes on either. His whole body was toned with muscle and he had short, black hair.

The mysterious person turned and stared at Jesse with a smile on his face. He didn't say anything at all as he began to walk over towards Jesse. He had the most beautiful brown eyes Jesse had ever seen. Jesse began to slowly remove his hands away from his private area. Suddenly, the rooms changed and Jesse found himself in the hallway with all of his clothes on. He was on his way to 11th period Anatomy when he bumped into someone who was clearly not paying attention to where he was going. He turned around to see who it was and was amazed when he saw that it was the same boy from the locker room.

"Who are you?" Jesse asked the mysterious person.

The boy then looked up and without making a sound he replied, "Alex."

Suddenly, the boy began to fade away as the annoying sound of Jesse's alarm clock rung through his ears. He opened his eyes in a cold sweat and got out of bed as he cut off his alarm. He scratched his head slightly, trying to put the pieces of what just happened together.

"Alex," he whispered to himself as he couldn't get the mental image of the boy's face out of his mind.

Chapter 3:

Jesse could do nothing but think of this imaginary person as he traveled through the halls of his school. He sat in all of his classrooms drawing pictures of the boy from his dream. If only this person were real, he thought to himself. He walked into his second period class and sat at the desk closest to the door. The teacher had lectured on and on about the Spanish Revolution, meanwhile, writing notes on the chalkboard. Jesse paid no attention to the lecture as he daydreamed about his dream boyfriend.

"Mr. Andrews, please pay attention!" the teacher shouted, "this will be on the midterm,"

"Sorry, Mr. Corwin," Jesse uttered in embarrassment.

After school had finally ended, Jesse rushed out of his last class to get to his locker. As he hurried through the hall, he continued to think about Alex. In result of him not paying attention to his surroundings, he bumped into another student who was carrying a lot of books in his arms with his head down. The two people collided and fell onto the dirty floor.

"Oh my goodness. I'm so sorry," the boy said as he picked the books up from the ground.

"No problem. Let me help you with these, where are you going in such a hurry?" Jesse asked the boy as he picked up two of the books and held them in his left arm.

"To the library, I have to give these books back to the school or else I'll be charged for them," he explained.

"Okay. Oh, by the way, my name is Jesse Andrews,"

"I'm Alex, Alex Smith," the boy replied.

Ding Dong! Alex, the boy from Jesse's dream. Jesse took a good look at Alex. It was him, the boy he kept dreaming about. The two boys got off of the floor and slowly walked to the school library, meanwhile having a conversation.

"So how long have you been going to this school?" Jesse asked.

"I just moved here last month and I've been going here for almost two weeks now," Alex replied, "What about you? I don't normally see you around here,"

"I've been going here for almost a year, but no one recognizes my existence. I've been living with my brother and his twisted girlfriend ever since our parents died," Jesse explained.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. It must've been hard," Alex said in sympathy.

"Yeah, but I've learned to live with it since then," Jesse replied.

As they finally entered the library, Jesse looked at one of the book titles as he handed them back to Alex.

"'What If Someone I Know Is Gay'. Interesting choice," he commented.

"You've read it before?" Alex asked with a surprised look.

"Yeah, a few days ago," he replied, "I don't mean to be disrespectful but…are you gay?"

"No…I'm bisexual. And I'm only that because I have a girlfriend," Alex replied with a slight chuckle. He then reached into his pocket and took out her picture.

"She's cute. What's her name?" Jesse asked. He seemed sort of disappointed that Alex was already taken.

"Nicole," Alex replied. "But I'm thinking about breaking the whole thing off. I don't know, I just fell out of love with her,"

"I know how you feel," Jesse said. "I had a girlfriend once, but I didn't like her at all. It wasn't that she wasn't good for me, because she was; it's just that I didn't feel right with her. So we broke up,"

"So are you planning on dating anyone else?" Alex asked, indicating that he was interested in Jesse.

"Probably. Why, are you up for it?" he asked back.

"Let's just be friends first, okay?" Alex responded with a laugh. Jesse joined in with him.

"Well, here's my phone number. Call me sometime so we can talk or hang out. But wait about a week; I'm sort of grounded,"

"Why?" Alex wondered.

"Well, get this. My brother's girlfriend, Kristine, destroyed the house while my brother was at work and I was at the library. So when I got home, I cleaned the entire house. But then, she tells my brother that I did it and I get grounded," Jesse explained.

"Bummer," Alex replied.

"You're telling me. But I gotta go; I guess I'll see you around?"

"Okay, I'll text you,"

"I'll be waiting,"

"Thanks a lot!" Alex shouted as Jesse walked away.

That night, while Jesse was finishing homework on his bed, his cell phone began to vibrate. He picked it up and looked at the caller ID. It was Alex.

"Hello," he whispered.

"Hi, I didn't call at a bad time did I?" Alex asked.

"No, I was just finishing my homework. I thought you were going to text me?" Jesse said.

"I like the sound of your voice, I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be. To tell you the truth I like the sound of your voice, too," Jesse smiled. "I see you made it home safely,"

"Actually I'm just now coming on my street now. I offered to stay a while to help the librarian sort out some books," Alex explained.

"Where do you live?" Jesse asked suddenly.

"I live on Iverson Street near Lakewood Avenue," he answered.

"Oh…wait! What's your address?" Jesse asked, noticing that he also lived on that street.

"18352 Iverson Street. Why?" Alex wondered.

"Omigod, you live right across the street from me,"

"Are you serious?" Alex said in excitement.

"Yeah, I can see you walking down the street. I can't believe this,"

"Which house is yours?" he asked.

"Look ahead," Jesse replied as he got out of his bed and walked to the window; waving his hands.

"I can see you,"

"All right, I gotta go, now. Hasta Manana,"

"What?" Alex wondered.

"It's Spanish. It means see you tomorrow," Jesse explained.

"Oh, well, hasta manana,"

"Bye," Jesse finally said as he hung up the phone.

Jesse got ready for bed by setting the time on his alarm clock. He then removed all of the clothes from his body and put on his pajamas. He finally got under the covers and began to touch himself as he started to think about Alex, imagining him completely nude. His slightly toned body and his beautiful brown eyes. He wondered if Alex was thinking of him. Before he knew it, Jesse had finally fallen asleep.

That night instead of having another embarrassing dream, Jesse dreamed that he and Alex were sitting on the roof of his house; watching the sun as it faded into darkness of the night. Every star in the sky became visible as the moon shined bright.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Alex asked.

"What?" Jesse replied.

"This, us being together looking at the stars," he replied as he grabbed Jesse's hand. Hesitantly taking one step at a time, Jesse made the first move and kissed Alex on his lips.

"Why did you do that? Are you crazy?" Alex shouted in anger.

"I'm sorry. I thought you'd like it," Jesse explained.

"Well you thought wrong! I told that I have a girlfriend, I'm outta here," he said in frustration as got up and jumped from the rooftop. He landed on his feet and finally walked home.

Beep…beep…beep…beep…

Chapter 4:

Jesse awoke in a flash as his alarm clock rang loudly in his ears. He sat up in his bed and thought deeply about his most recent dream, trying to figure out what it meant. Was he going to do something to piss Alex off? Or was it even another premonition? He soon forgot about his dream as he got out of bed that morning and got ready for school. He then walked out of the front door and met Alex at his house.

"Hi," Alex said generously.

"Hey, who are you waiting on?" Jesse asked.

"You are you ready?" he replied.

"Yeah let's go,"

From then on out the two boys were practically inseparable. Things really heated up when Jesse had gotten off of punishment. They spent almost every weekend going to the movies or to the mall. Then when they got home, Jesse and Alex would talk on the phone for hours. They were having the time of their lives together. But was one thing that Alex felt he had to do.

"Hello is Nicole there?" he asked politely as he spoke to her mother.  
"Yes she is. May I ask who's calling?" she asked back.

"Alex, her boyfriend. Didn't she tell you about me?" Alex pondered.

"No, she didn't. I'll put her on the phone,"

"Thank you," Alex replied.

After a few seconds, Nicole finally answered, "Hello?"

"Hi, Nicole. It's me, Alex. There's something that I really need to talk to you about. Are you busy?" Alex asked.

"No, why don't you come over. There's something that I want to say too," she said hesitantly.

"All right. I'm on my way," he said before hanging up the phone in the living room.

Once Alex had arrived at Nicole's house, she was already waiting for him. She had a worried expression on her face as if something was troubling her. Alex sat next to her and stared at the sky.

"Well should I go first or you?" he asked.

"I go first. Alex, I can't do this anymore,"

"Can't do what anymore?"

"This, us, I can't do it anymore. I mean you haven't spent any time with me at all since we've been together," she replied. "All you ever care about is yourself. What, are you afraid of me or something?"

"No. It's just that I sort of lost my attraction to you," Alex said.

"What do you mean you lost your attraction to me? Alex I don't understand you anymore,"

"Nicole, I'm bisexual," Alex finally said.

"Say what?" Nicole looked at Alex with a serious face.

"That's what I came over here to tell you," Alex said.

"Let me get this straight. You came all the way to my house to tell me that you are gay?" She said aloud, trying to cause a scene.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but I just wasn't ready for this kind of pressure," he explained. "I hope that we can still be friends,"

"Friends! You think that I'm going to be your friend after this! Leave Alex, just leave," Nicole commanded.

"I'm very sorry Nicole. I only hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I still love you and always will, but I'm not in love with you. Goodbye," Alex said softly as he saw that Nicole was starting to cry. He then got up and began his walk home.

Chapter 5:

Jesse sat on his bed watching a scary movie on TV. Suddenly, his cell phone vibrated next to him. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Alex.

"Hello," Jesse said in an joyful mood.

"Jesse, it's me Alex. Guess what?" Alex replied.

"What?"

"I broke up with Nicole," he said softly.

"Why? Did something go wrong?" Jesse asked.

"I came out to her," Alex answered. "She flipped. But you know what? I think she was going to break up with me first because she said that she couldn't do this anymore,"

"I'm sorry. So what are you going to do now?" Jesse asked.

"Well. I was thinking that you and I could out to get something to eat on my motorcycle. Are you up for it?" Alex offered.

"I'm on my way," Jesse replied in excitement.

Jesse ran downstairs in a hurry to get to Alex. He'd never ridden a motorcycle before. Once he got to the front door, Alex was already waiting for him on his bike. Alex handed him a helmet and told him to hold on tight as Jesse hopped on. Alex then started up the engine and slowly pressed on the gas. The motorcycle began to move slowly and then started to speed up as Alex pressed it more. Finally, they were riding down the street in a fast pace. Jesse felt like he was having the time of his life as he wrapped his arms tightly around Alex's waist. He could tell that Alex was felling the same way as they rode gracefully through the streets of Maple Heights.

The two boys soon reached a McDonald's restaurant. Jesse thought that Alex was going to park the bike in the parking lot. But instead he went through the drive-threw line. Alex turned at Jesse and gave him a suspicious look.

"What are you doing? Aren't we going inside?" Jesse asked.

"This is what we're eating. But this isn't where we're eating," Alex replied.

"Then where?" he wondered.

"You'll see," Alex replied again.

Alex ordered and paid for the food and then rode off again. Jesse couldn't wait to find out where they were going. A few minutes later, they reached their destination. It was Stafford Park. Alex parked the motorcycle at a nearby parking lot and shut off the engine. It was beginning to get dark outside and, for some reason, Alex was in hurry as he and Jesse ran to the top of a hill.

"Look," Alex said, pointing to the sky.

Jesse and Alex looked up at the darkening sky and were amazed to see a beautiful sunset and the stars appear before their very eyes. They then sat down and began their first real date.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Alex asked.

"What?" Jesse replied.

"This. Us being together looking at the stars," he replied as he grabbed Jesse's hand.

"Oh, no," Jesse thought to himself, noticing that he was now living one of his dreams. "My dream was a premonition. I'm going to do something that will make him mad. Okay Jesse, stay calm and don't do anything,"

"Are you okay," Alex said suddenly.

"Yeah, I'm perfect. This night couldn't get any better," Jesse replied.

The night soon sprung itself on the earth as Alex and Jesse rode home on the motorcycle. Once they'd reached home, Jesse took off the helmet he wore on his head and got off the bike.

"I had a great time, tonight. Thanks for everything," Jesse said.

"I had fun too. So I guess I'll come pick you up for school tomorrow. I mean if that's okay with you," Alex offered.

"I'd like that a lot. Goodnight," Jesse responded.

"Buenos noches," Alex replied with a smile.

Jesse smiled back generously. Then he turned around and walked away. Alex rode his motorcycle backwards in his driveway. He then watched Jesse as he entered his home. That night was the greatest night of their teenage lives.

Chapter 6:

The next morning, Jesse woke up to another day in a surprisingly joyful mood. For some reason, he was very eager to go to school. Maybe it was because he finally had a reason to go to school. He quickly got ready for the day and headed downstairs. As he was beginning to walk out of the front door, he was suddenly stopped by Kristine, who was calling his name from the kitchen.

"Jesse," she said calmly.

"What is it?" Jesse replied in frustration. Truly, he did not want see her face.

"Um…I just wanted to—apologize. I shouldn't have lied like that about you. It was wrong and I'm sorry," she said with a shameful look on her face.

"Is something wrong?" He asked as he started to close the door.

The two people sat on the couch and Kristine came out and said, "Well, I'm pregnant."

"Oh my God, are you sure. How many months are you?" Jesse asked in excitement.

"The doctor says that I'm around two to three months," she replied.

"Does Mark know?" he asked curiously.

"I'm waiting for the right time to tell him,"

"And when will that be?" Jesse asked.

"When are you going to tell him that you're gay?" Kristine replied.

"How did you know that?"

Just then, Kristine pulled out the book that Jesse had been reading.

"Oh boy…," Jesse said, astonished by this sudden invasion of his privacy.

"Tell you what, tonight I'll tell mark the good news, but you have to tell him about this," she said waving the book in his face.

Jesse took a minute to think about what was going to happen if he told Mark his secret. Suddenly, the door bell rang.

"Who is it?" Kristine asked politely.

"Hello is Jesse home?" the person asked.

Jesse nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Alex's voice.

"Yeah, come on in," he replied nervously.

"Who's your friend?" Kristine wondered as Alex opened the door and walked in.

Jesse stood out of seat and walked over to his new friend.

"Kristine, this is Alex. Alex, this is my brother's girlfriend, Kristine," he replied.

"Nice to meet you," Alex said politely.

"Same here. So what's going on? Are you two dating?" she asked.

"Well, I'd like for us to, but we don't know how people would react," Alex responded.

"Forget about the people! Worry only about you and Jesse and no one else," she blurted.

"But what about Mark?" Jesse asked.

"Don't worry about him. I'll talk to him," Kristine replied.

"Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?" he wondered.

"Out of the goodness of my heart. Plus, I think you two make a cute couple,"

"Thanks so much!" the two boys shouted in joy.

"But you have to tell Mark about you, okay?"

"I'll be sure to tell him tonight. Thanks again," Jesse replied.

"Now hurry up or you'll be late for school,"

With that said the new couple left the house and walked to school together, meanwhile, holding hands. As they continued to travel down their neighborhood, other teenagers began to stare at them with disgusted expressions on their faces. The school principal peeked out of her office window and was appalled and outraged to see the couple as they walk through the front door. A silent laughter was exerted through their classmates mouths as Jesse and Alex slowly walked through the hallway in embarrassment. A group of jock football players suddenly began to circle around the two boys.

"What do you two freaks think you're doing?" the team captain, Drake Patterson, asked.

"Going to class, is that a problem?" Jesse said.

"And who are you calling freaks?" Alex grunted.

"Oh okay, how about "fags"? How do you like that queer-bank?"

"Don't mess with me Drake," Alex said in anger. "I'm sorry for breaking up with your sister, but will you please leave us alone,"

"What are you going to do if I don't? Rape me?" Drake uttered with a slight giggle.

"You'd like that would you?" Alex replied.

The huge crowd of instigating students all laughed at the hilarious comment. Drake then moved towards Alex's right ear and said, "Don't push it."

Finally, the principal hustled over to the crowd; suspecting a fight.

"All right people break it up!" she commanded.

Steadily, the crowd began to dissipate. But before Drake and the football team went to their classes, Drake pointed his fingers at the two boys and said, "See you soon."

"Into my office you two, now!" she commanded.

They waited patiently for the principal to call them into her office. Alex paced the floor continuously, wondering what she was going to do to them. Jesse fidgeted in his seat nervously, looking at Alex as paced left and right. Once he'd gotten close enough to him, Jesse grabbed Alex's hand and asked him to sit down; for it was making him more nervous. Finally, the principal opened the door and called the boys inside. They calmly walked in as she closed the door from behind them.

"Well, I see we have a situation on our hands," she said as she sat back in her chair.

"Excuse me ma'am. What do you mean?" Jesse asked.

"Well as you may well know, in the student handbook it describes many different things that are strictly prohibited," the principal explained.

"Yeah I know. But what does that have to do with us," he then asked.

"Well…in the book it says that homosexuality or any form of sexual deviance is extremely forbidden at this school,"

"Can I ask why?" Alex wondered.

"Two years ago, there was a school shooting in Portland, Oregon. Many students made it out alive, but a lot of students were killed," she explained.

"Yeah I know about that. I was one of the survivors," Alex replied. "But what does that have to do with us,"

"Then you understand me. Anyway, according to a few of the other survivors, the suspects were homosexuals. They were bullied in school just like you two are. After it got too far, the boys retaliated and attacked the school,"

"The suspects were Nazi worshipers," Alex corrected.

"And how do you know that?" she asked.

"Because I was best friends with one of them. He was killed by his accomplice after the attack for some reason," he explained.

"Miss Calloway, what's going on? Do you think we're possibly going to shoot the school?" Jesse asked.

"That's what I'm afraid of. So if you are not able to change this sort of action…I'll be forced to suspend you and possibly expel you both. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yeah loud and clear. You're saying that we're freaks and don't belong in school. Just forget about our right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness," Alex replied in outrage.

"Now calm down young man. I'm just looking out for what's best for our students," she claimed.

"But this isn't fair. It's like we're being denied our right for an education over something we can't change," Jesse argued.

"We know it's a little harsh but please be reasonable,"

"May we have some time to think this over?" Jesse asked calmly.

"All I'm saying is that we neither want nor do we need another school shooting around here,"

"May we go back to our classes now?" he asked.

"You're excused, and I'll tell your teachers that you're coming,"

Chapter 7:

"You're kidding! I don't believe you," Kristine said in outrage.

"It's true, we're being denied our education because of our orientation," Jesse replied.

He and Alex sat on the couch next to Kristine, who sat on the living room table.

"We've got to fight this somehow," Alex suggested.

"We could go to the Board of Education. Maybe they could us," Jesse said.

Suddenly, everyone heard a clicking sound coming from the door. They looked at the doorknob as it slightly turned right. The door slid open. Kristine was glad when she saw Mark walk through the door.

"So, how was work?" Kristine asked.

"Same as always, boring as hell. Hey, who's this?" Mark asked.

Alex held out his hand politely and said, "Alex, my name is Alex,"

"Mucho gusto," he replied.

"Encantado," Alex smiled.

"You speak Spanish?" Mark asked.

"Si, un poco," he replied.

"Well I'm going to get along with him," Mark commented. "So what's going on?"

Everyone turned toward each other silently. Mark gave them a suspicious look and finally Kristine told him her secret.

"Remember when I had got sick a few weeks ago?" she asked.

"Yeah I remember. You were puking up everything you ate," he laughed, but stopped instantly as he saw that Kristine wasn't laughing with him.

"Well I went to the doctor and he told me that…," Kristine paused.

"What, what did he say?" Mark asked anxiously.

"Mark, I'm pregnant," she replied in excitement.

"That's great! Muy bien," Mark shouted in joy as he hugged his girlfriend.

"There's something else," Jesse uttered suddenly.

"What?"

Jesse took a deep breath and finally said, "I'm gay,"

Everything grew silent in the room as Mark looked in his brother's eyes. He then exclaimed as he saw that the boy wasn't joking.

"Oh my goodness…what!" he stated.

"He didn't want to tell you until he graduated but-," Kristine said to try to calm him down.

"How long has this been going on?" he said unusually calmly.

"I've been this way since I was thirteen, but I just recently accepted it," Jesse explained.

Mark started to walk toward the kitchen. He placed his hands on the table as he began to cry. He thought about their parents and about how they would feel if they found out something like this. Then he thought about the dangers that Jesse was getting himself into. He would be getting bullied around and possibly worse.

"Jesse, could you come in here for a minute?" Mark asked.

Jesse walked in slowly and nervously and took a seat next to his brother. As he looked in Mark's eyes, he noticed that something else was bothering him.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

Mark looked Jesse dead in the face and answered, "I am not your real brother."

Jesse gasped in shock by the bad news.

"What do you mean," he asked.

"When I was only four-years-old, Mom found out that she had a disease that disabled her from having any more children. After a few weeks of hard times, she and dad finally decided to adopt. And we got you when you were only a month old," Mark explained.

"So I was adopted? Well what happened to my real parents?" Jesse asked.

"Your birth father died in war the day you were born. And your mother died of an aneurism while still in the delivery room," He explained.

"How do you know all of this?" Jesse asked.

"Because both of our parents were friends. They went to college together. My mom was there to see her godson's birth, and instead saw your mother's death,"

"What was my mother's name?" Jesse then asked.

"Jessica Wilson," Mark answered.

"And my father?"

"Joseph Wilson Sr.," he continued.

"I need to go think right now. Excuse me," Jesse said finally as he walked out of the kitchen slowly and went up to his room, with Alex following behind him.

"I can't believe this. I was adopted and they didn't even tell me until now," Jesse sobbed.

"Well you didn't tell them that you were gay until now. Don't you think that Mark was hurt also," Alex claimed.

"Yeah, but that's because I didn't want to accept it," he argued.

"Well I'd better get home. I bet my parents are wondering where I'm at. I'll call you later to check on you, all right,"

"Okay," Jesse wiped the tears from his eyes as he and Alex rose off of the bed and stared at each other. Alex moved his hands across Jesse's smooth face as he moved his lips closer to his. Jesse hesitated for a moment. He'd never actually kissed another boy before. He slowly moved his face toward Alex and their lips locked together. The two boys felt as if they were in heaven. A warm sensation filled Jesse's heart as he resisted on restraining his lips from Alex. It wasn't like Alex actually cared but it was getting late and he had homework to do. The two finally separated and stared at each other again, this time with smiles on their faces. That cheered me up, Jesse thought to himself.

"Well goodbye," Alex said as he turned his back against Jesse.

"Buenos noches," Jesse replied, rubbing his fingers across his lips.

Finally, Alex walked downstairs. He didn't want to disturb Mark and Kristine, so he gave a quick 'nice to meet you' as he walked out the front door. Jesse looked out his window and saw his boyfriend walk into his house.

Chapter 8:

Alex opened the front door to see his parents sitting on the living room couch. The television was turned off which indicated that he was in trouble.

"So how was school?" his father asked. This would usually be the first question they'd asked.

"Same as always," he replied calmly.

"Your principal called. She says that you came to school today holding hands with another student,"

"Yeah I did,"

"A male student!" his mother stated. "Alex is there something that you want to tell us?"

"Yes there is," and without hesitation, he came out and said, "I'm gay."

Mr. and Mrs. Smith stared at Alex with shocked looks on their faces. Alex wasn't a bit surprised by this. He was actually expecting this reaction.

"You're joking right?" his father asked, hoping to receive a positive answer.

"No I'm not,"

"How is this possible? No one in our family is like this. How long has this been going on?" his mother asked.

"Let's just say I've been this way for 17 years," her son responded.

"Why'd you keep it a secret for so long?" Mr. Smith asked.

"To protect myself. Do you think that I want people taunting me about this?"

"Well what do you think they are going to do now, be your friends?" his mother argued.

"I've learned to deal with it,"

"Do you have a boyfriend," Mr. Smith wondered. Alex never dealt with something serious unless he had some to go through it with.

"Yes, his name is Jesse and we've been dating for almost a week," Alex replied.

"Listen son. Are you happy with him? What I mean is does he treat you right?" his father asked.

"Dad, I've been dating him for a week and I already think that I love him," Alex replied.

"And there's no way for you to change this?" he asked.

"I don't want to be this way, I just am,"

"It's going to be difficult but…your happiness is more important to us than anything. So, we won't accept this, but we still love you," Mr. Smith said. Mrs. Smith laid back in suspense by what he said.

"Thank you for understanding,"

"Just promise us that you'll always be careful and use protection, okay. I don't know what we'd do if anything happened to you," his father uttered.

"I promise. Well I've got homework to do so can I go now?" Alex asked.

As his father gave him permission to go on about his business, he exhaled in relief that they did not completely humiliate and badger him about what he was. He was relieved but also quite surprised. He expected them to be up and down his case. But they didn't do anything to make him feel dirty or like a slut. Or maybe they're just stalling, he thought. Maybe they were waiting for the right time to restart the argument which would probably be more fierce that the first. The best thing for Alex to do was to not think about it.

Alex opened his bedroom door and walked inside. His room was filled with geeky sci-fi junk. From American sci-fi to Japanese anime, his room was decked out with posters. Alex kicked off his shoes and hopped onto his bed. His room was, unsurprisingly, in the basement. When he and his parents first moved to the suburban town of Maple Heights, Alex's room was intended to be in the room next to his parents' room. But his mother found out that she was going to have another child, so they needed the room for the baby. Alex really didn't mind at all. He always seemed to think that the basement was the best place for a teenager (especially a male of his age). It would give him more privacy. The only problem was that it was right next to the laundry room, the downstairs living room and his room didn't have a door. Aside of these circumstances, he agreed to have his room be downstairs.

Alex's parents didn't bother him a lot, in fact, not at all. Usually when he got home from school, the first place he would go to was his room. Now he didn't always stay hidden in his domain. From time to time he would show his boyish face to the family. But he liked to spend most of his time alone, quiet, out of sight in his dark and light blue colored room. Writing novels as a sort of entertainment. Alex would write in his little black composition notebook about anything. It all started in the ninth grade. Alex was in his Algebra class, just sitting there…bored. So he pulled out a notebook, that he never used throughout the entire year, and began writing his first short story. And ever since, he wrote stories about many different issues in his society.

Alex sat on his bed listening to his CD player while doing his homework. He didn't have the headphones on because they would throw off his concentration. But he did turn the volume of the device up to maximum. Behind the sound of the music, Alex could hear his parents talking about him in the kitchen, which was directly above his room.

"I just don't understand. He never showed any signs of this behavior before," his mother whispered softly.

"Maybe it's just a phase he's going through. You know how kids his age are," his father replied.

"To me it's more than that. You see…I've had three cousins die from HIV and they were all…like that. If anything like that were to ever happen to my baby, I don't know what I'd do," she said with tears rolling down her eyes.

"I see your point, honey. But what can we do. I mean this isn't something you can change,"

"What are you suggesting we do, just leave this alone?" his wife argued.

Mr. Smith nodded, "Just give it time and hopefully all of this will blow over,"

Alex thought to himself for a moment. He started to feel as if he were becoming a burden on the family. He sat back against the back wall and swept his hand across his black hair. This was beginning to put much pressure upon him. He had to make a decision. Suddenly, his cell phone rang, reciting the song "Temperature" by Sean Paul.

"Hello," he answered quietly.

"Hi, it's me Jesse. Is something wrong? You sound upset," Jesse proclaimed.

"Nothing is wrong. It's just that my folks are upstairs talking about me," Alex uttered.

"What do you mean talking about—you came out to them didn't you?" Jesse asked with an curious tone.

"You guessed it. But now I feel bad because they're worried that I'm going to get sick or something. I'm thinking about leaving and never coming back,"

"Hey, just because your parents are upset does not mean you go and kill yourself!" Jesse argued.

"What are you talking about? I meant that I want to run away for a while," Alex corrected.

"Oh well you can always stay with me," he offered. "But won't your folks worry about you?"

"I have an idea. My parents are going to Japan on a business trip; leaving me here by myself for two weeks. Why don't I come over and stay with you until they get back?"

"That's a great idea. Mark practically fell in love with you today. I'm sure he wouldn't mind letting you stay with us until your parents get back," Jesse said. "What time are your parents leaving?"

"At 8:00 tonight," Alex responded.

"That's in two hours," Jesse mumbled, "Okay, come over when they leave,"

"Sure thing. Well I gotta go now. See you tonight," Alex replied after he heard his parents call his name.

"Bye,"

Alex hung up the phone and hurried upstairs to see what his parents wanted. When he'd entered their room, they had just finished packing for the trip.

"Yes," he answered their call.

"It appears that our flight is taking off early due to huge thunderstorm issued to hit later tonight. So your mother and I are leaving now. But we Just wanted to tell you to be safe and don't get into trouble. Okay," his father explained as he zipped up his suitcase.

"Dad, I'm seventeen-years-old remember. I'll be fine. You two just go and have a great time. Don't worry, it's not like I have any friends to throw a live party with," Alex replied.

His father just smiled at him and said, "Well, just in case you have any problems there are emergency numbers on the fridge,"

"Don't worry! I'll be fine,"

"Right then. Honey, come on, we have to leave now if we want to be there in time!" his father stated. "Oh, before I forget, there's something I want you to have,"

Alex's father went into his closet and at the top of the shelf he grabbed a DVD covered with a clear plastic cover. He handed it to Alex and patted him on the shoulder.

"What is this?" Alex wondered.

"You don't know? It's a pornographic video," he replied. "Believe it or not there used to be a time when I too thought that I was a homosexual. But do you know what I did?" his father asked.

"No what?"

"I had an affair with a boy in college, just to see what it was like,"

"How did it feel?" Alex wondered.

"It felt weird and disgusting. I knew then that I didn't want this. And all of those homosexual feelings went away,"

"But then why did you get this movie?"

"To give to you,"

"Oh, okay. Hey, You guys better leave before you miss your flight," Alex said finally.

"Oh yeah. Jane, woman would you please come on!"

"I'm downstairs waiting for you!" Alex's mother shouted.

Mr. Smith had a puzzled look on his face. He always seemed to get stressed out when he is in a hurry. Alex handed his father the suitcase on their bed and guided him downstairs into the living room.

"Alex, are you sure you're going to be okay?" his mother asked.

"Mom, don't worry. I'm a big boy now," Alex replied.

With that said, his parents left the house. Once the door behind them closed completely, Alex went upstairs to pack his things. He made sure that he had all of his basic needs: a fresh pair of clothes, his toothbrush and deodorant. He packed all of these items in to his travel bag. As he checked to make sure that he wasn't forgetting anything, he scratched his head.

"Condoms. You never know what might happen," he remembered.

Alex reached into his dresser and pulled out four condoms. Two for him and Jesse and two extras just in case the first ones break. He then began to think about what Jesse would look like nude. Alex imagined the two of them making love on the floor. He couldn't wait to get over there

Chapter 9:

Jesse sat in his room watching TV. He couldn't wait for Alex to arrive. But what if Alex wanted to have sex with him? Jesse didn't own any condoms and he used the ones his brother had given him for "practice". The last thing he wanted to do was catch an STD. And besides, was he really ready to lose his virginity. Suddenly, he heard someone knocking at his window. Jesse pulled up the nightshades and was surprised to see Alex had arrived early. Jesse opened the window and kissed his boyfriend. He then moved a few steps back as Alex climbed into his room.

"What are you doing here so early?" Jesse asked.

"My mom and dad left earlier than expected. Plus I couldn't wait to see you," Alex replied.

"Me neither. For some reason I can't stop thinking about you," Jesse smiled as he stared into Alex's brown eyes. Alex smiled back.

"I'm starving. Do you have anything to eat?" Alex asked as he grabbed hold of his stomach.

"Sure, come on. I'll cook you something,"

"Wait, does Mark know I'm here?"

"I'm not stupid enough to bring someone into my brother's house without his permission. Of course he knows. So next time, use the door," Jesse replied.

Finally, the two boys walked out of the room and headed downstairs. The house was completely empty. Mark and Kristine had left out to go shopping. This was the basic activity that Kristine loved to do. They entered the kitchen and checked the refrigerator for some food. The second that door opened, Alex thought he was in heaven. The fridge was packed with fruits, meat, various types of artificial-flavored juices, and an average amount of vegetables. Jesse already knew what he wanted to make as he began randomly picking out things to cook.

"So, I see you like to cook. I like that," Alex commented.

"Yeah, it's been a secondary dream of mine ever since I was twelve. I was going to go the Culinary Institute in Pennsylvania," Jesse replied.

"What was your first dream?" Alex asked.

"To be a producer, director, and a writer,"

"What exactly are you making?" Alex wondered.

"You've never had a ham and cheese omelet before?" Jesse asked curiously.

"No. Where I come from, we basically eat only seafood,"

"You mean you're not American?"

"I was joking. Of course I've had one of those. Although, my family heritage comes from Russia," Alex replied.

"Yeah, well, I now have no freaking idea who or what I am. As far as I know…I'm Puerto Rican," Jesse announced. Alex looked at him with a look of sympathy.

"All I have to say is that no matter what you really are you are an American citizen,"

"Thanks. I feel a lot better now," Jesse said in gratitude.

"No problem. I'm starving, is the food ready yet?"

"You can't rush perfection," he stated. Jesse put the finishing touches on the omelets. "Okay, now they're done,"

Alex grabbed two plates out of the wooden cabinet and then walked over to the stove next to Jesse. Jesse picked up a fork and with it, he picked up one of the omelets. Alex held one of the plates as Jesse slid the food on to it. Afterwards, they did the same with the other omelet. They then sat at the kitchen table and began devouring their meal.

"So what do you think?" Jesse asked.

"Estupendo, complements to the chef," Alex complemented. A smile snuck across Jesse's face from the comment.

"So what's been going on with you since we got off the phone?"

"Let's just say that my father has reached a new level of cool. He and I had a long talk about me. And then, he gave a porno,"

"Did you watch it yet?" Jesse asked in excitement.

Alex reached into his back pants pocket and pulled out a DVD covered by a clear plastic case. A small strip of plain with paper covered by clear tape read the title: "The Tragic Life of Kenichi Sonada."

"That does not sound pornographic," Jesse said in disappointment. "What's it about?"

"I looked it up. It's about a teenager who gets raped in the boys' locker room, and to get revenge on the person who did it, he goes out at night and rapes him. He does this twice and it is soon incorrectly discovered that the rapist and his victim have AIDS. So finally, the two boys meet at school and get this…start dating each other. It's rated adults only for explicit sexual content," Alex explained.

"Don't you think your dad gave you this to teach you a lesson," Jesse uttered.

"Who cares? I've waited 17 years to watch one of these. So what do you say?" Alex asked.

Jesse pondered to himself; scratching his scalp. What if they ended up "doing something" from the excitement? Was he ready for that? He thought to himself for a moment and finally said, "Ah, fuck it. Let's watch it in my room." And with that said, the two boys went upstairs in to Jesse's room.

Mark and Kristine had just gotten out of the Value City Mall. They had spent over 150 on clothes for the new baby. Mark tried to make it seem as if he were having a good time with his girlfriend, but he was too concerned about his younger brother. Finding out that he was gay put a huge load of pressure on him. They entered Mark's car in silence. Sick of this reaction, Kristine attempted to start a conversation.

"Stop beating yourself up over this. He's going to be fine," she said, placing her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.

"I'm just worried that he might get hurt. Did you know that people will kill a person just because of their orientation? I'm scared for him," Mark replied.

"Jesse is not stupid, you know. He knows how to protect himself,"

"And on top of all that, he has his boyfriend over my house. Who knows what they're doing. You know how boys are," Mark argued.

"And I say again: he's not stupid. If something like that comes up, he'll know how to use protection,"

"Yeah, how do you know that?"

"Because you're his role model. He practically follows in your footsteps," Kristine stated.

"But I'm not gay," Mark argued.

"With few differences," she continued her statement.

"Well, I just hope he's all right. If something were to happen to him, I don't know what I'd do,"

Chapter 10:

The movie was nearly over, and was already leaving Jesse and Alex in suspense. They gazed at the television as it showed the main character getting his brains blown away by his dead boyfriend's older brother. Jesse placed his hand over his mouth in dramatic suspense. Alex lay on the floor stuffing his face with popcorn. The movie ended tragically, but still received two thumbs up from the couple. Jesse wiped the tears from his eyes as he turned the film off.

"That was sad. Both of those boys died,"

"I liked it, but something didn't seem right," Alex said.

"Yeah, the beginning didn't seem realistic at all,"

"I mean, come on. Ken wishes for excitement, and what does he get-a ring that turns him invisible. Plus, in the dark, you can see that he was painted blue. But overall, it was a good movie. The love scenes were fabulous," Alex explained.

"You liked that part the most, didn't you?" Jesse asked with a slight smirk.

"Duh, didn't you?" Alex asked back.

"Eh, it was OK,"

"That's it! Man, they showed more body parts than Showtime and Cinemax put together!"

"You're right about that. I guess I did like that a lot," Jesse admitted.

"Oh God, I feel so horny,"

"Say what?!" Jesse remarked.

"Oops, I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Uh, yeah. But that's okay, so am I," Jesse replied.

They both laughed at each others comments. But suddenly everything grew silent. Jesse and Alex stared at each other. Jesse made the first move and walked up to Alex and pushed him backwards onto the bed.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Alex asked.

"I'm seventeen years of ready," Jesse replied as he began to pull his shirt off of him.

"I'm going to like this," Alex thought to himself as he unzipped his jeans, exposing his boxer briefs.

Jesse got on top of Alex and they began to kiss. He soon began to put his hands inside of Alex's briefs, fondling with his penal area. In result, Alex felt his penis begin to erect. He placed his hands in the back of Jesse's pants, feeling on his soft behind. The two boys felt as if nothing could stop them as they caressed one another's bodies. Alex finally started to pull Jesse's pants off of him. Jesse took his hands out of Alex's pants to assist him. Once he was completely naked, Jesse turned over and lay on his back. Alex stood up and removed all of his clothes from his body. Now completely naked, the two boys got under a sheet of covers and started kissing again. Jesse began breathing deeply as Alex moved on top of him. His toes curled together by the intensity of the moment. Alex ached with erotic pleasure as he continued to move his body in every direction. All he could think about was Jesse as he pressed his body up against him. This had to have been the greatest moment of his life. Jesse began to push the cover off of them as he stared at the video camera on the top shelf of his wall. He grabbed the remote control for the device from off of his nightstand next to him. With the remote, he turned the camera on and zoomed in. Finally, the cover was completely off of their naked bodies, exposing Alex's penis as it penetrated Jesse's butt. A few minutes later, Alex restrained himself from Jesse and lay next to him.

"Wow! I've never felt like this before," Alex stated, trying to regain energy.

"My thighs are like…so numb right now," Jesse remarked.

The two boys were finally able to breathe easy after a few minutes. Jesse moved swiftly towards his boyfriend and sat right below Alex's abdomen. Alex put his arms gently around Jesse's body.

"So, what are we going to do about school?" Alex wondered.

"I don't know. I mean, we could go to the Board of Education and protest, but they probably support the idea. I think the best thing for us to do would be to lay low for a while," Jesse admitted.

"Man, I can't wait to get the heck out of school. I'm going to college and then moving to Amsterdam," Alex stated.

"Europe! You really are a sex-o-holic, aren't you?" Jesse muttered.

"I'm going there because they allow gay marriage," he then corrected.

"So why don't you just move to Canada,"

Alex took a minute to think to himself and then said, "Maybe I will do that."

"What college are you going to?" Jesse asked suddenly.

"I applied for Toledo University. What about you?"

"I may go there. But I also want to go to Ohio State. But really it's whatever school I get accepted to," Jesse said.

"So you said you want to be a movie producer. Do you also want to be an actor?"

"I can't act. But I've already prepared for my producing career by writing the scripts for my movies," Jesse replied with sincerity.

"I'd like to see them. But first…I want to do it again?"

"I thought you'd never ask,"

Alex felt his private area become erect as Jesse sat directly over it. But for some reason, he didn't insert his organ into Jesse.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to do this?" Jesse asked.

"I want you to do me," Alex responded.

"Oh, well, okay…I guess,"

Jesse rose off of his partner and slid down the edge of the bed as he waited for Alex to choose a position to be in. He grabbed Alex's jeans off of the floor and reached inside the right pocket for an unopened condom. He took the rubber out of its wrapper and placed it securely onto his organ. It fit on him perfectly. Jesse remained sitting on his knees as Alex lifted his legs high enough to where they nearly went over his head. Jesse moved up closer to Alex and inserted his organ into his boyfriend. He moaned as it slowly went in. Alex relaxed his legs as it soon became easier for them to move. He then pulled the cover slowly over Jesse's legs as he moved his body back and forth.

Jesse stared into his boyfriend's brown eyes as he pushed himself up against Alex. Alex glared his sexy eyes back at Jesse. He then moved his upper body upwards as he locked lips with Jesse. The two boys felt as if they were in heaven together. Things got intense after a while as Jesse began to speed up. Suddenly, he turned over causing Alex to now be on top of him as he lay on his back. Alex moved his body up and down as Jesse continued to penetrate it.

"Oh God. This feels so good," Jesse commented in a pleasureful but breathtaking tone. His toes curled in excitement as he moved his penis up Alex. Alex looked at the ceiling as he felt like a woman who was about to climax. It seemed as if Jesse could go on no longer as he felt an orgasm approaching. He turned back over, putting the two people back into the first position. He closed his eyes finally and jerked his body upwards and kissed Alex in excitement as he ejaculated. Excited, Alex scrunched up his face as Jesse pressed against him. After it was finally over, the boys took in deep breaths as they tried to breathe easy. Jesse kissed Alex again and giggled as he rose himself off of his partner with all of the strength he had left in his body and moved over to the side.

"Wowww," he and Alex exhaled in relief.

"I've waited seventeen years to lose my virginity. And now I know that it was worth it," Jesse stated.

"Yeah, I understand you. All my life I've heard things like 'sex is the stuff, man' or 'man I hit her good'. And now…I know what they mean," Alex remarked.

"So you still want to read my scripts?"

"Oh yeah, where are they?"

"Let's put on our clothes first and then I'll get them," Jesse suggested.

The two boys removed the bed sheet from their bodies as they got out of the bed. Instead of putting back on their original clothes, they put on the outfits that they wore to bed. Alex wore a black T-shirt with his boxers, while Jesse only wore a white T-shirt. Unfortunately, on regular nights, Jesse would prefer to wear nothing at all. But then he thought, I have a guest over here who, even though he just saw them, wouldn't want to look at my lower body. So he picked up his black Hane's boxers put them on. Finally, Jesse went over to his bookshelf, where he'd left the camera recording, and grabbed a white 3-ring binder filled with plastic covered sheets of papers.

He then took a look at the video camera, as he forgot that he had cut it on. Jesse placed the binder onto his computer desk and grabbed the camera. He turned the device around and pressed the stop button, followed by the rewind button. He watched as the film inside reversed to its beginning. Alex walked towards his boyfriend as he fiddled with the camera.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he flipped through the pages of Jesse's book.

"Wait a minute," Jesse replied as he continued to rewind the tape. Finally, he pressed the pause button and said, "Come look at this."

Alex looked over Jesse's right shoulder as he gazed deeply into the camera. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the image of him Jesse in the bed together playing in the visual compartment of the device.

"You've gotta be fucking kiddin'," he muttered slowly, staring at the image.

"I must've forgot that I had cut it on when we were finished," Jesse claimed. "Should I erase it?"

"Are you crazy? We have to sell it over the internet. Think of it, if this film is showed across the world, we could become rich and possibly become actors, too," Alex explained.

Suddenly, the two boys nearly jumped out of their skin as they heard the front door downstairs open.

"Jesse!" Mark called. "Jesse where are you?"

"In my room. Be down in a minute," Jesse replied. He then turned to Alex and said, "What should I do with the tape?"

"Hide it for now. Let's worry about it later," Alex responded.

"Is Alex here yet?" Mark asked.

"Yeah I'm up here," Alex shouted.

"What are you two doing?"

"Nothing!" they both replied.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you were all right," Mark stated.

"Oh, we're fine. We're just watching TV," said Jesse.

"Don't you have school tomorrow?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, why, what time is it?" Jesse asked.

"Es la once y media," Mark answered.

"What did he say?" Alex wondered.

"It's 11:30 at night. We have to go to bed, now," Jesse replied.

"But what about the tape?"

"We'll work on it tomorrow, I promise," Jesse replied.

Jesse set his alarm clock to 6:30 a.m. as he and Alex readied themselves for bed. Alex pulled out his sleeping bag and laid it on the floor. Meanwhile, Jesse went into the bathroom to brush his teeth. Alex soon followed him with his toothbrush in his right hand. They decided to have a little fun, racing each other to see who got done the quickest. After the race was over, Jesse was declared the winner and Alex watched in a smirk of defeat as he walked out of the door.

Jesse lay comfortably in his bed as he read one of his stories. Alex walked over to him and got into his sleeping bag. He then lay on his back and stared at the ceiling.

"Hey Jesse," he said softly.

"Huh…?" Jesse replied.

"What will we do if we ended up getting expelled because we can't give up our feelings for each other?" he asked.

"Right now, I have a plan to prevent that from happening,"

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to try to start a petition to have a GSA at our school,"

"A gay-straight alliance? Why would you want to do that?"

"So people like us won't have to feel left out anymore knowing that we are not alone," he replied.

"How do you even know that there are more like us?" Alex wondered.

"I don't know. It's just that there has to be another reason that they don't want our people in the school,"

"Well, I'm sleepy. Goodnight Jesse," Alex said.

Jesse looked at his boyfriend as he fell asleep and replied softly, "Buenos noches," He then turned the light off and went to sleep also.

Although they were two feet apart from each other, Jesse and Alex dreamed about the same thing. They dreamed that they had died and gone to heaven together. They ran across a pond of rose pedals, happy as can be. God showed his face in the clouds as the two boys continued to play around. They soon turned and looked up at him as his spirit blew in the wind. But while Jesse dreamed about how happy the two were together, Alex dreamed of something horrible. He dreamed of his old school back in Portland. He dreamt that he was actually there the day that the shooting happened. As he walked through the empty building, he felt a nauseating pain in his gut as the smell of death lured through the halls. He held his mouth shut with his hand and continued walking, trying to find a safe exit.

Suddenly, he approached an area of the school that was completely covered by thick, black smoke. It was coming from the auditorium. Alex hesitantly walked over towards the inferno, continuing to hold his nose from inhaling the smoke. He walked into the room searching for survivors, but only found dead, burnt corpses of the people inside.

"I have to get out," he uttered as he headed for the door.

Suddenly, the door slammed in his face as he approached them. The flames soon began to grow, covering the entire auditorium. He looked around in terror, searching for a way out. Just then, the dead bodies that sat in the chairs began to come back to life. The zombies approached Alex as he struggled to fight his way through the crowd. More and more dead people came towards him as he used martial arts to fight them off. But they soon overcame him and began devouring on his flesh.

Beep…beep…beep…

Alex woke up in a cold sweat by the sound of Jesse's alarm clock. He looked around the room to make sure that he wasn't still dreaming. He had been having the same dream ever since he and his family moved from Oregon. Jesse yawned and stretched as he woke up from his sleep.

"Buenos dias," he greeted. He soon gave Alex a worried expression as he gave him a terrified look. "Are you okay?"

Alex smiled at Jesse and replied; "Now I am."

Jesse smiled back at him as he got out of bed and walked over to the TV. He turned it on and turned to channel 8 news. The weather on the mews station showed a high temperature of 70 degrees and a low temperature of 65 degrees. Alex wiped the sleep from under his eyes. They didn't have to be in school until 9:00, so they had time to spend. After he saw what the day's temperature was, Jesse turned to Nickelodeon just as The Fairly Oddparents came on.

"I love this show," Alex stated.

"You can watch it while I go and take a shower," Jesse said as he walked towards the bathroom.

Jesse rubbed the soap down his body as water ran down his legs. He stood there with his head down, watching the water as it traveled from the nasal into the drain. Outside, Alex began to undress himself as he continued to watch the show. He then walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Jesse held the shower curtain open as Alex walked in.

"What happened to The Fairly Oddparents?" Jesse asked.

"They don't excite me as much as you do," Alex replied.

Jesse smiled again and looked down at the floor. Alex put his hand on Jesse's chin and rose his face up as he kissed his boyfriend. Jesse grabbed hold of Alex's left leg and lifted it as he pushed him against the wall. Alex wrapped his arms around Jesse's waist as they continued to kiss. After they'd finally gotten out of the shower and had put on their clothes, the two boys went downstairs to grab something to eat for breakfast. Jesse reached for the Cookie Crisp cereal box on top of the refrigerator, while Alex grabbed two bowls from the kitchen cabinet. After the bowls were filled with the chocolate chip flavored, sugar coated cereal, Jesse and Alex sat at the kitchen table and ate their food.

Finally, it was time for them to leave for school. Jesse made sure that he locked the door behind him as they left the house. As the two people walked down the street to their school, they did not hold hands as they first did. But even though the boys weren't being at all intimate together, other students consistently stared at them as they walked towards the front entrance and stood there ashamed and embarrassed.

"Do you have an eye problem?!" Alex cried out in anger.

"Alex, what do you think you're doing?" Jesse asked in a whisper.

"I'm standing up for our rights," he replied. Alex then turned to Jesse and explained, "Listen, we should not be forced to hide who we are. We shouldn't have to hide how we feel about each other. And I shouldn't have to hide how I feel about you,"

"What do you mean? What are you trying to say?" Jesse asked.

"That I love you, Jesse," Alex replied. At that very moment, he kissed Jesse in front of the entire high school. Then he repeated, "I love you,"

"But what about the Student Code?"

"Screw that book! And if the Board of Education has a problem with us being together, then they can kiss my white ass," Alex directed his attention toward the gathering audience of students, "And so can you,"

The students all applauded by his testimony, obviously agreeing with him. The school principal, Ms. Calloway heard the statement through her office window. After hearing that a book of written school rules couldn't stop the couple anymore, she sat back in her chair and thought to herself. Finally, the school bell rang extremely loud as the students walked into the building and went over to their lockers. Jesse and Alex were the last to enter as they stood in the entrance hugging. Finally, Ms. Calloway thundered out of her office and called the two people into her office. They restrained their bodies from each other but held hands as they walked through the door. The principal closed it shut behind them.

"Please sit down," she calmly invited.

Jesse and Alex sat in the two empty chairs that sat still in front of them. She offered them some pepper mints, but they refused.

"I overheard your little testimony outside and I have to say…you've got a lot of courage to stick up for yourself in front of the entire school. I'm very proud of you both," she said suddenly, facing her attention to the calendar on her desk.

"Ma'am, no disrespect, but it this going to take long?" Alex asked.

"No, not at all. I just want to help you make a bad situation seem like a good one," Ms. Calloway answered.

"Can you explain?" Jesse asked.

"I would like to start a GSA in our school. So, if you can start a petition to see how many people would be interested, this idea could be possible. So what do you say?" She responded, leaning back in her chair with a smirk on her face.

Jesse was relieved to hear the principal's offer for he was planning on doing the same thing. Alex turned his head to him with his eyebrows perked up. Jesse scratched his scalp, pretending like he didn't have an exact answer. Finally, he held his hand out and replied, "You've got a deal." Ms. Calloway gripped his hand tightly and shook it, confirming the deal.

After the conversation was over with, the principal called the students' teachers directly to inform them of their arrival to class. Jesse and Alex walked out of the principal's office and into the quiet, empty hallways. They cheered in victory as they suddenly felt that everything was going to get better. As they traveled through the hallway, they walked with caution as Drake Patterson approached them. He was accompanied by his football teammates, David and Rafael Jackson. The twin brothers followed behind him like dogs sniffing each other's butts. The three people came towards Jesse and Alex and stopped when they came into direct eye contact with the two.

"Drake," Alex said in a monotone voice.

"Fags," Drake replied. "So, where are you two queers headed? To a queer bank?" His gronies laughed softly behind him.

"For your information, Drake, we are on our way to class," Alex replied. He grabbed Jesse's hand and said as they walked past the bully, "So if you don't mind,"

As the two boys walked relatively quick, Drake yelled, "Well, we know who the dominant male is in this relationship!" His comment drew a small audience of students into the hall.

Continuing to walk in the same pace, Alex turned around and said, "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot…thanks for last night. My ass still hurts." He made a gesture and felt his behind, mimicking pain.

As the crowd of students all laughed hysterically at his comment, Drake put on a serious expression. He looked at Jesse as he also laughed by his best friend's joke. He then gave a quick giggle of sarcasm and said in anger, pointing at Jesse, "I'll see you after school,"

Finally, the halls cleared as everyone went back to their classes. Drake and his cheerleading squad entered the detention class. Jesse and Alex separated until later.

As Jesse went through his daily schedule of classes, he made sure to inform the students of the GSA program. Students generously signed his petition and hoped the best of luck. By the time his lunch period approached, Jesse had already obtained over 50 votes. As he entered the lunch room, he immediately spotted Alex at a nearby table. He was alone and reading a book. Jesse walked over to his table and sat down next to him.

"Hey," he said politely, trying not to disturb Alex in his imagination thought.

"What's up?" Alex replied, still concentrating on the thick, paperback book.

"Nothing much," he replied. "What are you reading?"

"Oh, this…it's nothing," Alex said, closing the book. "It's just a series of testaments some of the students from my old school made about the shooting incident. I just wanted to see if they are the same as what I heard on the news after it happened,"

"That was two years ago. Why are you still thinking about it," Jesse asked.

"Because, Jesse, that could've been me being shot by enraged teenagers," he replied. "Plus, lately I've been dreaming about it. Death in every direction. Crimson stains on the white walls. It's scary, believe me,"

"But you survived," Jesse stated.

"Yeah, but I could've been killed," tears rolled down Alex's cheeks as he wept in sorrow. Jesse hugged him in sympathy and then offered Alex a tissue. With the tissue, Alex wiped the tears from under his eyes.

"I've got some good news," Jesse said, trying to cheer his friend up. He pulled out the GSA petition from his English folder and handed it to Alex.

"You got the petition signed already. That's amazing," Alex cried in joy as he wiped the few remaining tears off of him.

"Yupe. After school I'm going to the office to give it to the principal," he uttered.

"I wish that I could come with you, but I have something important to do after school,"

"Oh yeah, what?" Jesse asked.

"I have a martial arts lesson, thank you very much,"

"It's no problem. Just make sure that you come home afterwards okay,"

"Sure thing," Alex responded.

Chapter 11:

The final school bell rang at 2:45 in the afternoon. As students went to their lockers, Jesse rushed to the principal's office. He walked inside the main office and asked to see Ms. Calloway. Unfortunately, she was busy talking with a parent, so he was asked to sit in a chair and wait to be called on. Jesse felt as if he were being interviewed for a job as he waited patiently for the secretary to allow him to see the principal. After waiting nearly 20 minutes, Ms. Calloway finally called him into her office.

"So do you have the petition signed?" she immediately asked.

Jesse took the petition out of his pocket and placed it on the principal's desk. She seemed surprised to the fact that he had accomplished his task so quickly.

"Impressive," she complimented him on his completeness.

"So can we start a GSA?" Jesse asked.

"Well…I'm a woman of my word. So, there will be a brief announcement confirming the start of a Gay-Straight Alliance tomorrow morning. Congratulations, you got your wish," Ms. Calloway announced with a smile on her face.

"Gracias, muchas gracias. Thank you," Jesse replied as he shook the principal's hand.

Jesse left the office with a joyous smile on his face. As he entered the empty hallway, he thought about whether or not he should go to Alex's martial arts class and wait for him. He then decided to just go home and wait until he arrived. But first, Jesse needed to use the restroom badly, so he walked to the boys' restroom. As he walked inside and stood at one of the stalls, he could have sworn that someone was in there with him. But he ignored it and unzipped his pants as he urinated. Suddenly, Jesse heard a noise come from one of the stalls.

"Hello," he said, calling out to whoever was playing with him. He called again but nobody answered.

"Look whoever it is, you need to stop messing around with me!" he shouted in aggravation as he zipped back up his pants.

As he rushed toward the door, trying to exit the bathroom as quickly as possible, the voice of another male stunned his ear.

"And where do you think you're going?" the voice said. It sounded inhuman. Like a deep, enraged, technologically enhanced tone of voice that could easily give an elderly person a heart attack. Jesse froze still in fear by the sound of the voice. He turned around hesitantly, afraid of what he would find. Once he turned, he saw the figure of a male, preferably 17 or 18 years old, wearing a black shirt along with black pants and black shoes. His hands were covered by black leather gloves and he wore a black skull cap over his face. His body structure made him look like a football player or a wrestler.

"What do you want?" Jesse asked as he quivered in fear.

"Not laughin' anymore, are you Jesse?" the stranger said.

"Who are you?" he asked, not recognizing what the stranger was talking about.

"Your worst nightmare,"

After that statement, the last thing that Jesse saw was the stranger's fist as it jabbed into his face. He fell onto the ground unconscious.

"Man, it's getting late. I'd better get back to Jesse's before he starts to worry," Alex said as he looked at the clock on his cell phone. He walked through the streets of Maple Heights at a rapid pace. He couldn't wait to get home so that he could congratulate Jesse on his victory. But as he walked, Alex felt as if something bad had happened…or was about to happen. Suddenly, he heard a soft, almost faint voice speak to him.

"Go back to the school, Jesse's in trouble," it told him.

"Mom?" he said as he recognized the voice as his own mother. He looked around him, searching for where the voice was coming from.

"Hurry, while there's still time. Save Jesse, Alex," another voice told him.

"Dad? Guys where are you?" Alex wondered.

"Don't worry about us, just save Jesse," they both demanded him.

Alex though that he was going delusional when he heard the command, but he did what not only his parents, but his heart also, told him to do. He ran quickly back to the school, which was by now empty. Once he'd reached his destination, he walked inside and looked around for Jesse.

"Go into the restroom," his parents told him. He turned around again, hoping to this time see them. But he didn't.

"What's going on here?" he asked himself as he continued to travel around the school.

Finally, he entered the boys' restroom. He looked around everywhere and was amazed to see that no one was in there.

"Hello!" he called out hesitantly. But no one responded. He called again and leaned on the bathroom stall. He looked in the mirror and was stunned when he saw someone sitting on their knees behind one of the closed doors. The person's pants were taken halfway off and blood dripped down their leg. Alex knew that whoever was in the stall was possibly unconscious.

Alex walked slowly toward the bleeding victim. He could feel a sense that almost no one else he knew could feel: danger. Whoever was behind that door was in serious danger and needed help. Not just anyone's help…his help. Finally, Alex slid open the door and jumped back in terror…as Jesse feel onto the ground.

"Oh my God!" he shouted at the sight of his unconscious friend. "Jesse…Jesse wake up!"

But Jesse didn't respond. Blood ran down from his nose and dripped onto the floor. Alex kneeled on the floor and held his boyfriend's head, trying to stop the flow of blood. He shook Jesse twice and called his name. But there was no response coming from him at all.

"Somebody help me!" Alex shouted in hope that someone outside would hear his call.

Luckily, Ms. Calloway was just leaving her office when she suddenly heard someone calling for help. She quickly ran down the hall towards the restrooms. She stopped when she saw no one in trouble. Alex yelled again, this time louder than before. Ms. Calloway nearly jumped out of her skin after hearing this. It was coming from the boys' restroom, she thought. Finally, she burst through the door and literally almost had a heart attack when she saw Alex holing a half-naked and unconscious Jesse.

"Oh my Lord, what happened to him?!" she panicked.

"I don't know! I think he was raped!" Alex explained, and then he shouted again, "Jesse…wake up!"

Ms. Calloway pulled out her mobile phone and dialed 911.

Mark and Kristine hurried through the hospital doors. Ms. Calloway had called them after the ambulance arrived. She met them in the lobby and tried to calm Mark down.

"The doctor says that Jesse is going to be fine," she explained. "He was raped and beaten viciously, but he is fine,"

"Did he wake up yet?" Mark asked.

"Well…no, not yet,"

"Then to me, he is far from fine," he replied in fiery.

"Please, Mr. Andrews, remain calm,"

A nearby doctor walked over to Mark and asked if he was a member of Jesse's family. Mark nodded and looked at the doctor with a curious expression.

"Jesse is going to be fine," the doctor explained. "He is awake and will be ready to go after he talks to the police. It was a blessing that he got here on time before it was too late. He's grateful to have a friend like Alex,"

"Oh thank God. Well can you tell us what happened o him?" he asked.

"All we know right now is that he was raped. The DNA of the semen is being analyzed as we speak," the doctor replied.

"There was semen inside of him?" Alex asked as he burst out of his seat.

"No. It was on his shirt," he replied with a disgusted expression on his face.

"Can we go see him?" Mark asked calmly.

"Sure, follow me,"

Mark, Kristine, and Alex followed the doctor to the room where Jesse was. They walked into room 224 in relief as they saw Jesse. He looked unharmed as he sat upright against a pillow. A police officer sat next to him; writing a statement report for the incident. Jesse turned and smiled as his family stood in the door. Suddenly, Alex's phone vibrated in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out and looked at the screen. His grandmother was calling him.

"Hey, I'll be right back," he whispered to Mark. He then walked out of the hospital and answered the phone.

"Hello," he said.

"Alex—this is grandma," his grandmother responded in a sad tone. She sounded as if she was crying.

"Hi, grandma, how are you doing? What's the matter?"

"It's your parents. Alex, they're dead,"

"What, what do you mean?" tears dripped from Alex's eyes after hearing this.

"Their flight got caught in a thunderstorm and crashed before even leaving the United States. Alex, no one survived,"

"You're lying! I refuse to believe that my parents are gone! No…I won't believe it-no!" he shouted in disbelief as he dropped to the concrete ground; sobbing in tears. His grandmother cried over the phone along with him.

Suddenly, Alex felt as if he couldn't breath as his lungs rapidly pumped out air. He then knew…he was having an asthma attack. He got back on his feet and stumbled back into the hospital. He entered the waiting room and collapsed as all of his energy was lost. Doctors and nurse rushed over to the fallen boy, trying to wake him up. Alex could hear his heart beating slowly in his mind.

Bump, bump…bump, bump…bump, bump…

Alex opened his eyes to find himself in a hospital bed. But he wasn't alone…his mother and father were standing by him. His father placed his hands on Alex's chest area.

"Breathe easy," he said in a peaceful voice.

Alex suddenly felt his lungs pumping air at a normal pace.

"Mom…Dad, what-what happened?" Alex asked softly.

"It's okay, son. We're sorry we couldn't you this before but…we want you to be happy—no matter what orientation you are," he's mother explained.

Alex began to think that it was his fault for everything that has happened. If he had never met Jesse, he wouldn't have gotten raped and maybe, God wouldn't have taken his parents from him.

"Don't blame yourself for what has happened," Alex's father said. "Don't you know that, because of you, that boy is more confident in himself than ever before? You saved his life, Alex. Be proud,"

"Alex, baby, do me a favor," his mother asked. "Wake up. Live your life in happiness. Don't let anyone get in the way of you and Jesse's relationship. Wake up. There are people out there who want and need you alive. Wake up…and be happy,"

Alex…Alex, wake up. Alex, this is Jesse. If you can hear me, wake up.

Alex blinked twice to clear his vision as he awoke from his dream. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was Jesse's face staring at him.

"What happened?" he asked as he looked around the room.

"You had a panic attack. Thank God you're all right," Mark explained.

"Don't you ever scare me like that again, okay? What happened anyway that caused it?" Jesse asked.

"I got a call from my grandmother. My parents' flight never made it to Japan. It got caught in a thunderstorm and crashed. Jesse, my parents are dead,' Alex began to weep again, but tried desperately to hold back the tears.

"It's okay to cry," Jesse replied, wrapping his arm around his friend's body. "When I found out that my parents had died, I tried to hold it back, too. But I soon found out that crying made me feel better,"

"But I never told them that I loved them,"

"You didn't have to…they already knew,"

"So did you find out who raped you?"

"Take one good guess,"

Alex didn't even need to guess to know that it was Drake Patterson.

After a few more hours of testing for STD's, Jesse and Alex were finally released from the hospital. The ride home was quiet as everyone inside thought about what was going to happen after tonight. Would Ms. Calloway keep her word and start a GSA at their school? And if so, who would join it? Also, would the police ever find Drake and arrest him? No one could do anything but hope that things would get better. Suddenly, Alex got a sharp pain in his head as they approached their neighborhood.

"Something's wrong," he claimed. "Something doesn't feel right,"

"What's wrong, Alex?" Jesse wondered.

"I don't know. But whenever something bad happens, I get a sharp pain in my head," he replied.

"Hey wait, do you guys smell smoke?" Kristine asked.

"You know what, I do," Mark responded. He pressed down on the gas pedal and the car began to speed up. He began to follow the awkward smell, afraid that something was on fire. He suddenly came to a stop as he saw police cars and fire trucks on his street. Finally they saw it…Alex's house had been consumed by fire.

"Oh my—that's my house!" Alex shouted in shock and anger. Everyone got out of the car and ran over to a nearby police officer.

"Excuse me, what happened here?" Mark asked.

"Some folks across the street say that they saw a couple of kids come over here and set the house on fire," the officer explained.

"They were looking for me," Alex claimed.

"This is your house?" he asked.

"Yes, it is…it was," Alex replied.

"Well do you know who might have done this?"

"It was the same person who raped my friend: Drake Patterson," he replied.

"Sorry, but may we get over to our house across the street?" Mark asked politely.

"Let these people through!" the officer ordered.

The fire trucks created a small pathway for the family to go through. Mark drove the car into the garage, but he did not come out. He just sat inside and thought to himself. For him, today was one crazy day. Jesse got raped, Alex's parents died, and his house was gone. And most of it was done by the same person.

Alex watched as his home was destroyed. He then looked down and saw a picture covered under a broken glass frame. He picked it up and grasped it in his arms, for it was the only thing that he had to remember his parents with…along with memories. Jesse walked over and hugged Alex in sorrow.

"I can't believe this," Alex mumbled. "The only thing I had to remember my parents by is gone,"

"Maybe we should go in the house," Jesse suggested.

"I'm going to kill Drake. He raped my boyfriend and burned my family's home," he announced.

"Don't worry about it, the police will handle it," Kristine said.

Alex turned to Kristine and gave her a look of hatred as he said, "Well they better find him…before I do."

"This really has been one messed up day," Jesse stated as he got ready for bed.

"Yeah, but look at the bright side: tomorrow, Ms. Calloway will announce the beginning of a new GSA program," Alex admitted.

"I guess that is a good thing," Jesse finally said as he lay on the bed.

Alex pulled out his sleeping bag and laid it on the floor. He then began to put on his pajamas while Jesse watched him unintentionally. Jesse tried to turn his head away in a nervous reaction, but found it impossible once Alex took off his shirt. Alex's body was gorgeous enough to eat. Alex suddenly began to laugh as he saw the hilarious expression on Jesse's face.

"What's so funny?" Jesse asked with a slight chuckle.

"You should see the look on your face," he replied as he mimicked the expression. Jesse laughed at the joke.

Mark listened from the kitchen as the boys laughed at each other.

"Wow, they sure sound happy together," he stated with a troubled tone.

"What's the matter?" Kristine asked.

"Nada. It's just that I'm worried about what tomorrow will bring for them," he explained. "I mean what if something else happens to them?"

"If you feel as if they are in danger, then why don't you keep them home tomorrow?" she asked.

"I can't do that. They're graduating in three months. If Jesse misses school, it could jeopardize his chances of walking that stage,"

"Well, all I can say is don't worry about it," she finally said.

Chapter 12:

A few hours later, Jesse and Alex were asleep in their beds. Alex began to dream about the high school shooting again. This time he was in his Biology class when the sound of gunshots struck the halls. Almost immediately afterwards, all of the students tried desperately to get out of the building, an explosion arose from inside. A shockwave of air sprung against the fleeing victims. It came from the right side of the school, near the auditorium. Suddenly, Alex heard the cries of students trapped inside by the smoke. Out of an act of bravery, he hurried back inside to rescue the trapped people. He entered through the doors of the school gymnasium.

"Hello!" he cried as he traveled through the fire. But as he continued to call, he got no response. Finally, as hard as it was for him to accept it, Alex came to the conclusion that the students were dead. He hurried back out as fire consumed the entire auditorium.

Suddenly, Alex heard a noise coming from down the hall. He had to find somewhere to hide or else he was going to be caught and possibly killed. So he had no choice but to hide on the boys' locker room. As he hid behind the third row of tall lockers, he heard the killer singing the lyrics to Lauren Hill's "Ready or Not" song.

"Ready or not…here I come…you can't hide. Gonna find you, and make you want me," the maniac sung as he was getting closer to Alex.

The singing stopped suddenly and everything grew silent. Alex didn't want to even look to see whether or not the killer had left, but he did anyway. He looked in every direction, breathing deeply as if it were his last. Finally, he rose off the floor and walked slowly towards the exit.

"Gotcha," the killer said as he suddenly appeared from the other side of the lockers.

"Look man, I don't know who you are or what you want, but—,"

"Not laughin' anymore, are you Jesse?" he said suddenly.

"Jesse?" Alex replied in a puzzled tone. He then looked in the mirror and was amazed to see that was in the outfit that Jesse wore the day he was raped. He then looked back at the mashed killer in fear. "Drake?"

The killer nodded.

"Eric?"

"You guessed it, pal. I'm your worst nightmare," the killer finally announced as he aimed his gun at Alex's head and pulled the trigger.

AAAAArgh…

Alex jolted awake in terror as he awoke from his nightmare. He turned and looked at Jesse as he slept peacefully in his bed.

"Not again," he sighed in anger as he stared at the ceiling.

Alex got out of his sleeping bag and walked to the bathroom across from him. After he finished peeing, he looked at the clock that hung on the bathroom wall. It was one o'clock in the morning. He finally understood that he didn't want to sleep alone. Alex walked back over to his sleeping bag and looked at Jesse. His eyes were open slightly as he stared back at Alex. Alex gave him the cutest puppy dog stare that he just couldn't resist. He moved over a bit as Alex got under the covers. He then stared at Jesse again, this time with a smile on his face. A few minutes later, the two boys were asleep once again. Alex didn't have another nightmare that night.

As Jesse and Alex walked to school that following morning, they were not encountered by the other students. But that did not mean that they did not stare constantly at the boys. Mainly because they were wondering why the two people would come to school even after the events that took place last night. Lord knows they would've stayed home if they could, but there was only two more months of school and, like Mark, they didn't want anything to stop them from graduating. But although this was the case, the students continued to look at them as if they were stupid. In both of the boys' minds, the events were life-threatening, but that shouldn't stop them from living. So they ignored their classmates and went through the day.

It felt as if half of the school day had gone by in minutes, even though it's been many hours. As usual, students rushed into the lunch room to be first in line. But as the line grew longer, many of the teenagers began to "cut" in front of people. Lucky for Jesse, he was one of the people who arrived early. After getting his lunch, he looked around to find Alex sitting at a table next to a vending machine. He was alone and had his head set down on the cold surface. Jesse walked over to him and sat down.

"Hey, what's the matter?" he asked as he took a bite of his hamburger.

"Nothing—I'm just thinking," Alex replied as he lifted his head up a little.

"About your parents?"

"I just can't believe they're gone. The day that they left for their plane they found out that I was bi. My mom didn't speak to me at all and my father got really stressed," suddenly Alex cried out, "I miss them so much!"

Jesse put his arms around Alex in sympathy. Students who passed by them looked at the two boys in sorrow. Apparently, they'd all seen what had happened to Alex's house. Suddenly, Drake Patterson marched over towards them; with his two soldier boys following behind him. Everything began to slow down in Jesse's mind suddenly as he watched him getting closer to them. He could almost imagine ripping Drake's eyes right out of their sockets, or bashing his head against a brick wall. Alex began to get the same feeling in his mind. Finally, all of tears of sorrow faded away and were replaced with a look of hatred.

Drake gave Jesse a small smirk as he walked past the table and over towards the vending machines. Finally, Alex leaped out of his seat grabbed Drake's shoulder. Jesse immediately held him back just before he would knock the fuck out of the bully.

"Don't do it!" he shouted, still holding onto Alex.

Suddenly, the entire lunch room grew silent and everyone drew their attention towards the disturbance. Alex stared at Drake for a moment, just thinking of nothing but to calm down and relax. He inhaled and the exhaled and restrained his arm from Drake as he sat back in his seat.

"After school…3:00…Stafford Park. We're gonna settle this once and for all," he announced softly.

"I don't have time to play with you," Drake responded.

"Oh what? You gotta go rape someone else, now?!" Jesse shouted.

That last comment really pissed Drake's nerves. Because not only were the police after him, but everyone now knew what he did to Jesse.

"Okay, you wanna fight? Fine, but don't cry when I whoop your faggot ass all over the park," he finally agreed. Drake then walked away from the couple and went on with his business.

Jesse looked at Alex and asked, "Do you know how to fight?"

Alex shook his head and said, "Nope, do you?"

"No," Jesse replied. "We're screwed aren't we?"

"I don't care anymore, I just need to kick his ass," he claimed.

Finally the school bell rang, indicating that lunch was over and that students should report to their next class. As the hallways became crowded with people, Jesse could do nothing but think to himself. He thought about what was going to happen if he and Alex fought Drake. A bad feeling in his mind kept telling him that he was going to lose. Neither he nor Alex knew how to fight, and by Drake being captain of the football team and the basketball team, he would have a strong advantage over the two of them.

Soon enough, it was 2:45, fifteen minutes before the fight that would end all of the harassment, all of the torment, and all of the teasing. Alex sat in his Anatomy class, anxiously looking at the clock hanging still at the top of the wall. He too was afraid of what the outcome of the event would be. But he doesn't want to show that fear for it would show the other classmates that he would possibly punk out of the fight. Alex wasn't afraid to fight Drake, but he was afraid by the fact that he did not know how to fight…but he had a strategy.

Finally, 2;50 was the time and students left their classrooms to go home. Alex and Jesse caught up with each other in the hallway.

"Well…this is it," Jesse proclaimed.

Alex took a deep breath, nodded, and then said, "Let's go,"

Chapter 13:

Alex and Jesse reached Stafford Park hesitantly. Their hearts were beating with adrenaline as they entered the arena. A huge crowd of people had gathered to watch the fight. At that moment the two boys knew…that there was no turning back. Drake showed up with David and Rafael, his two cheerleaders. Finally, the five people stood face to face, eye to eye.

"You ready to rumble, queer?" Drake asked.

"I'm ready when you are. But if we're going to fight, we are going to do it the right way," Alex announced.

"And what's the right way?"

"One on one, just you and me,"

"Bring it on,"

Jesse and Drake's friends stepped back as Alex and Drake got into their fighting positions. But Alex's position was slightly different, like he was using martial arts.

"Are you serious? You're going to use some karate moves on me now, huh Jackie Chan?" Drake joked in laughter.

"Nope, you're wrong. It's not karate…its Tae Kwon Do," Alex grinds in response.

Drake threw the first punch at Alex, but missed by a centimeter as Alex swiftly turned to the left. He then kicked his right leg up; which smacked right into Drake's stomach. He howled in pain and gripped his hands tightly against the injured area. Alex swiftly turned and kicked the bully a second time, this time in the nose. Drake's head snapped upwards and he fell hard onto the ground. David and Rafael both rushed over to aid their leader. Blood ran down from Drake's nose and mouth. He put his hand over his face in embarrassment. He just got his butt whooped in front of the entire school. Alex held his hand out generously to help him get on his feet.

"It's over," he said with a smile on his face. But Drake rejected his offer and rose from the ground. He stared at Alex with a look of hatred. Finally, he spoke the words that set the end of the rivalry.

"Yeah…it's over," he smiled as he grabbed Alex's hand and friendly shook it.

Jesse smiled and began to applaud as he saw his best friend make peace with the former enemy.

That night, after homework was done, Jesse and Alex went into the kitchen to make something for them to eat. Jesse decided to attempt to bake a pizza. This was something he'd never done before, but always wanted to try. The outcome was not good. He forgot the main ingredient: baking soda. Finally, Alex lost his patience and ordered a pizza from the nearby Domino's. He ordered one large pepperoni pizza and a Pepsi along with it. The total amount came out to be 12.99. While they waited the two boys went back into kitchen to clean up the mess they made. Jesse placed the pizza ingredients back into the cabinet above the sink, and Alex cleaned off the table and counter with a wet rag.

An hour later, the pizza had arrived. Alex opened the front door and exchanged the 15 needed for the pizza. After finally receiving the purchases, the teenage delivery boy left the property. Alex sat the pizza on the living room table. Jesse walked into the area, carrying two plastic plates in his hands. The boys finally sat next to each other on the couch.

"Hey Alex…how come you lied about knowing how to fight?" Jesse wondered.

"Tae Kwon Do is not fighting. It's self-defense," he explained.

"That explains why you waited for him to throw the first punch," he concluded. "So that if an adult showed up, you were just defending yourself,"

"That's partially right. I didn't really know whether to punch him in the nose or kick him in the nuts," Alex chuckled. Jesse joined him and they soon began to laugh.

Jesse grabbed the television remote off of the table and turned on the TV. There was a movie on called "The Basketball Dairies." It featured the actor, Leonardo DiCaprio as a teenager who is under alcohol and drug abuse.

"Hey…do you think that Leonardo DiCaprio is really cute?" Jesse asked.

"He's OK—it's just that he's like too old and he's already taken," Alex answered. "Personally, I liked him better in Man in the iron mask and Titanic,"

"I know. Like, how can you look so handsome even in death?" he pondered.

"How'd you like to find out?"

"Huh…?"

"Bang!" Alex shouted as he pointed two fingers at Jesse, imagining that it was a gun.

"Ahh! You shot me!" Jesse laughed and pretended to play dead.

"That's tough love for you," Alex uttered.

Alex stared at Jesse's face as he lied still on his back. He was a very talented actor. The way that he laid still made it seem so real.

"How do I look?" Jesse asked.

"Um…I can't tell. You look normal," Alex responded.

Jesse opened his eyes and gazed at Alex.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Huh…oh nothing. It's just that this vision keeps popping up in my head," Alex responded softly.

"What kind of visions?" Jesse wondered.

"I can't explain it. There's an ambulance in front of the school and students are watching in suspense as a body bag is carried from inside the building," Alex explained.

"It's probably from that movie we saw a few weeks ago," Jesse said.

"Maybe," he finally admitted. "Jesse, there's something I've got to tell you,"

"What?"

"I have ESP,"

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked.

"I'm psychic. I know telepathy and precognition,"

"Oh yeah…prove it," Jesse commanded.

"You dreamt that you and I met in the hall two days before we actually met," Alex said.

"How did you know that?" Jesse pondered to himself.

"I knew that because I made you dream it. Every dream you've had before we met was because I caused it," Alex explained.

"But—how?"

"All I had to do was concentrate my attention and thoughts into your dreams,"

"Why didn't you just tell me that you liked me?"

"Because I was afraid…that you didn't feel the same way about me,"

"Alex, I fell in love with you the first day you came to that school,"

"I'm sorry if you feel manipulated. I just--,"

"Oh, shut up and kiss me," Jesse said before closing his lips with Alex's

The couple sat on the couch and kissed with excited passion for two minutes. Jesse hauled his body over top Alex's groin area. Alex wrapped his arms around his mate and rose off of the couch, still carrying Jesse in his arms. He tried to walk upstairs into Jesse's room but tripped while going the stairs. Jesse giggled and restrained himself from Alex. Finally, he grabbed Alex's hand and the two ran up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door behind them.

30 minutes later…

Alex and Jesse lay next to each other under the bed sheets. Their clothes were scattered all over the floor. The boys were nearly out of breath, let alone exhausted. Jesse was the first to speak.

"Alex," he said. "Do you know how to pass your powers on to other people?"

"I don't think it works like that," Alex replied. "I wasn't born with ESP; I developed it over time,"

"But how did it happen?"

"All I do is concentrate my attention," finally Alex said, "Come on I'll teach it to you,"

Alex sat up against the back wall. Jesse sat up and listened as Alex explained how to gain psychic powers.

"First, find an object by which you want to move or think of something you want to do," he explained.

Jesse thought about what his brother was doing at work. But then he remembered that Mark and Kristine were at the doctor's. Suddenly, he thought about Kristine's baby, imagining its little heart beating softly. Finally, vision appeared in his mind…about the sex of the fetus.

"Omigod…it's a boy," he cried softly as he continued to concentrate.

"All right, open your eyes," Alex commanded.

Jesse opened his eyes slowly as his vision cleared.

"It worked," he replied.

"So what do you want to do now?" Alex asked.

"Let's watch a movie," Jesse insisted. "How about—Teenage Caveman,"

Jesse got out of bed and walked over towards his computer. He then grabbed the chosen DVD from the top shelf that hung on his wall. Finally, he placed the CD into the compartment. As the movie played, Jesse leaned his head over Alex's shoulder. Alex looked at his wrist watch, checking the time. It was around 9:00 in the evening and Mark and Kristine hadn't come home yet.

Alex closed his eyes and concentrated his attention. Almost immediately, a vision appeared. There were police cars and ambulances everywhere. In the center of the crowd, two cars were crushed against each other; indicating a car accident.

"Jesse…" he whispered.

"Yeah," Jesse replied.

"Something's wrong," Alex alerted.

Jesse jolted upright and looked at his companion. Suddenly, he also felt uneasiness in the air. He soon thought of Mark and Kristine. Finally, the phone in the kitchen downstairs rang. This made the boys worry even more as they got out of the bed and walked quickly downstairs. Jesse picked up the phone and was relieved to hear Mark's voice.

"Mark…thank God. I thought something bad had happened," Jesse admitted. "What's wrong?"

"We got into a car accident," Mark announced.

"What! Oh my God, are you okay?" Jesse asked.

"I broke my leg and Kristine…might've lost your nephew. We're on our way to the hospital now,"

"I hope everything's all right,"

"Yeah, me too. Do you think you'll be okay by yourself tonight?

"C'mon! I'll be 18 in two weeks. Plus, Alex is here, remember?" Jesse responded. "What hospital will you be at?"

"Mt. Zion Hospital. Don't worry, we're gonna be fine," Mark said.

"I know. Bye,"

Jesse hung up the phone in relief that nothing serious happened to either of them. He then turned to Alex and they walked back up to his room.

Chapter 14:

Drake Patterson sat on his bed, pondering to himself while listening to his CD player. His headphones vibrated to the sound of his Nickleback CD. He thought about what had happened earlier and how he got his butt handed to him on a silver platter in front of the whole school. And to top it all off, he got beat by a fag!

"Where did he learn to fight like that?" he wondered.

Suddenly his cell phone vibrated against the nightstand adjacent from his bed. Drake picked it up and looked at the caller ID. Problem was…there was no evidence of someone calling. Drake had a puzzled expression on his face as the phone continued to vibrate. Finally, he answered it.

"Hello," he said calmly.

"Well, well, well. Drake Patterson, bully of Maple Heights High School, got his ass beat down by me, a so-called fag," someone replied. "I guess we all learned something today,"

"Alex? How the hell did you get my number! I'm going to kill you when I see you," Drake shouted.

"This isn't Alex, you prick," the person uttered. "I just want to let you know that if you ever even think of harming us again, there will be hell to pay,"

"Oh yeah! Well, fuck you, man!" Drake cried in fear by the tone of the voice. It sounded deep, angry…and evil.

"What time and when, bitch?"

Finally the stranger hung up. Drake laid still in anger but also in fear.

Alex and Jesse continued to watch the creepy sci-fi movie. By the time the film was over, it was nearly midnight. Alex was already asleep and Jesse lay next to him. Jesse got up from the floor and turned the computer off. He then stared at Alex as he slept. He was jerking and fidgeting as if he were having a horrible nightmare. Jesse gently picked Alex up from the floor and laid him down on the bed. Alex continued to move frantically in his sleep. This began to worry Jesse as he tried to wake him up, but couldn't.

Suddenly, Jesse put his hands on Alex's had and concentrated his attention on the nightmare. As he entered Alex's mind, the room began to spin and transform. It transformed into the hallways of a school. Jesse searched around for Alex as he toured across the halls. He noticed something as he looked around: the school was empty. Jesse soon came to a classroom. A foul stench stung his nose as he walked inside. Blood was everywhere and the decoration of the room had been destroyed. He hesitantly moved further until he was relieved to see Alex. Only problem was that he was holding a gun up to another student's head.

"Alex, what are you doing?" Jesse shouted.

"Jesse please, help me," Alex cried. "I'm trying not to pull the trigger but something is forcing me,"

"Alex, put the gun down," Jesse commanded.

"I can't! I'm not doing this, someone else is!"

"Alex, listen to me. This is a dream, it's not real okay. You can beat this. Just concentrate,"

Alex concentrated hard enough to cause damage to his brain. Slowly, the gun lowered itself to the floor. The hostage sprinted out of the classroom and rant to safety.

"I have this same dream every night. There's something that I must tell you," Alex explained.

"What?" Jesse wondered.

"The reason that I knew so much about the incident was because I was one of the killers,"

Jesse was stunned when he heard this.

"Two years ago, my friend Eric and I planned and achieved in an attack on this school. You see back then we were Nazi worshipers and we basically decided to carry out what Adolf Hitler started. But there was a problem: I found out that Eric was a homosexual. So I had to shoot him. And now I think that his spirit has come back to haunt me," Alex explained.

Suddenly, the sound of a gun shot was heard from the hallway. Jesse peeked outside and saw someone else with gun coming towards him. This boy was around the same height as Alex and had blonde hair. He looked Russian and wore the same outfit that Alex wore, except he had on an army T-shirt.

"Alex, I told you to kill everyone in sight. Now who is this wimp?" the teenager asked.

"Excuse me? Did you just call me a wimp?" Jesse blurted.

"Oh I'm sorry, would you prefer the term fag?" he asked.

"You know what? You are the last person to ever call me that," Jesse said in anger as he came face to face with his new enemy.

"Eric watch it! That's my…boyfriend," Alex replied.

"Boyfriend! You can't be serious. Adolf Hitler would be so disappointed in you,"

"I'm not a Nazi anymore, Eric. It's over," Alex stated.

"Wait a minute? You know this wacko?" Jesse asked.

"He was my best friend and wanted to be boyfriend," Alex explained.

"I never wanted to be your boyfriend," Eric said.

"Oh please. Every time we were alone we would start kissing,"

"I guess being dead shot my memory," Eric turned his head, showing where the bullet hit him. "But I'm back now. Back to ruin your life,"

"Alex, shoot him!" Jesse shouted.

"It won't work, you can't kill what's already dead," he replied.

"I have a better idea: I'll wish you away," Alex said.

Alex closed his eyes and prayed away the evil spirit. Eric's body began to deteriorate into ash. He howled in agonizing pain as he could no longer feel his legs.

"Say hi to Drake for me," Eric requested as he finally disappeared.

Alex opened his eyes to see complete darkness. Jesse stood still next to him with his eyes closed.

"Jesse…Jesse wake up. It's all over," Alex smiled as he remembered that he had to wake up. He pinched his arm and screamed himself awake.

Alex opened his eyes to see everything back to normal. Jesse lay next to him, sleeping like a baby. Because of Jesse, he would have no more nightmares. Alex got out of the bed and got ready for school. Soon enough, Jesse awoke and did the same.

Chapter 15:

As the two boys left for school, they had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. As usual, students gathered around at the front entrance, waiting to be let inside. Jesse and Alex were no longer stared at by the other students when they came to school. Instead they were invited to chat with a group of students offering their friendship. Suddenly, a red truck came speeding down the street. It was traveling at a speed of 50 mph, 25 miles faster than required.

As it approached the school, the front passenger leaned his body out of the window. In his hands he held a gun. One he pulled the trigger, everything suddenly grew silent.

POW!

Jesse fell onto the ground, critically injured. The unseen bullet pierced his rib cage. All of the other students screamed and ran for their lives. Alex hurried over to his fallen ally, covering the wound with his hands. Blood oozed rapidly out of the wound.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Alex cried. A nearby student heard his cry and immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

The red truck came back around the schoolyard, firing more rounds at Alex and Jesse. Alex suddenly threw out his hand and concentrated his attention on the bullets coming towards him. Immediately the bullets paused in motion. He'd used his telekinetic powers to evade the shots. Then with one swift push with the power of a small atomic shockwave, Alex was able to throw the vehicle into the air. Other students watched in amazement as the truck disappeared into the sky.

Alex turned his attention back to Jesse. He shook him twice, trying to wake him up. But as much as he tried, Jesse just wouldn't wake up. Only one thing could save him, Alex had to attempt to heal Jesse. First, he used his powers to remover the bullet out of the wound. Next, he placed his hands over Jesse's chest and prayed. Slowly, the bullet wound began to close and Jesse's heart beated at a normal pace. Finally Jesse opened his eyes to see Alex looking at him.

"Did you…save my life?" Jesse asked.

Alex shook his head and cried tears relief and joy and said, "For the second time." He then hugged Jesse and stared into the sky; thanking God that Jesse was going to be all right.

"Jesse…there's something that I've been meaning to ask you," Alex announced.

"What is it?" Jesse replied.

"Will you be my date to the prom?"

"Of course,"

"And after we graduate…will you marry me?"

"What? We're not old enough yet and not to mention neither one of us jobs and we're going to different colleges," Jesse argued.

"I applied for Toledo University and got in. And so did you," he replied, taking the two letters out of his pocket.

"Oh my God…I got in to Toledo University!"

"So what do you say now?"

Jesse thought to himself for a moment. Maybe getting married won't be a bad thing. But they're both too young and irresponsible. But he knew he wanted to spend every day looking into Alex's eyes.

"I'm not saying no, but I'm not saying yes, either," Jesse replied finally. "I just think that we should wait a while…at least until we're 21."

"In that case, can we consider this as a pre-engagement?" Alex asked.

"Yes, to that I say yes," Jesse answered.

The remaining students applauded the couple in aw as they hugged each other. Never before has this school faced such excitement. But the celebration was soon cut short as Jesse looked into the sky and saw a light reflecting around the sun. The light appeared to be coming straight towards the school. As the object got closer, everyone finally noticed that it was the red truck. Panic sprung as all the students ran for safety. Alex immediately stood up and threw one arm into the air; concentrating on the falling vehicle. He was attempting to slow it down.

Jesse rose off the ground and helped Alex in his struggle. Slowly, the vehicle began to gently flow down onto the surface; landing on all four wheels. The driver and front seat passenger inside were tremendously frightened by what had just happened. Jesse took one look at the driver and drew a look of fury upon his face. It was Drake. Jesse became so mad when he saw him that anyone could literally see fire in his eyes. He marched over towards the truck and stopped midway.

Drake finally came back to his normal self and placed the gun into his pants and got out of the vehicle. He then walked up to Jesse; staring eye to eye with his enemy.

"You've bullied me, you've raped me…," Jesse said in anger. "And now you've tried to kill me."

"Yeah, too bad it didn't work," Drake replied with a small giggle.

"You know, if I tried hard enough, I could bash your head into the ground," Jesse said pacing the ground suspiciously.

"C'mon, cut the bull! We all know you want to do something, so try it. I dare you," Drake pressured the subject by pushing Jesse backwards.

Once he'd stopped pushing, Jesse looked at him and said, "You know what? I'm going to be the bigger man and walk away." And so he did.

"I guess I should've expected this…from a fag," Drake uttered aloud. But Jesse continued to walk.

"Alright then, I guess I have to finish this myself," he suddenly said as he pulled the weapon from his pocket; pointing it at Jesse.

"Jesse—look out!" Alex shouted.

Jesse turned around and gave Drake a look he'll never forget. His eyes were white and his face was pale. The gun in Drake's hand suddenly broke in half as Jesse continued to stare at him. Suddenly, Drake felt sharp pains in his chest area. It felt as if his heart and lungs were fighting something neither could beat. Drake collapsed to the ground as it soon became difficult for him to breathe. Jesse soon began punching him in his chest continuously, each time harder that the last. He then grabbed him by his shirt collar and stared into his eyes.

"Live or die…you choose," Jesse offered.

"Please, don't kill me. I want to live! I want to live!" Drake pleaded, regaining his breath.

"You worthless piece of trash," Jesse responded. "All those years of bullying people because you think you're better than us, and you can't even stand up to me. I'm going to be nice and let you live. But if you ever, ever pull a gun up to my face again…you better make peace with God first,"

Jesse finally released Drake from his clutches and walked away. His eyes were back to normal and he now had a smile of his face as walked back to his companion.

"Where did that come from?" he asked.

"I don't know. I just didn't care anymore," Jesse replied.

The teenagers' celebration was cut short as all of the students suddenly began to stare at them. They had all seen them using their psychic powers to overcome Drake. Everyone stared silently at the boys.

"What…what's wrong?" Jesse asked them, only to receive no reply from the scared teens.

"They saw us using our powers!" Alex whispered.

The two boys turned to the students, attempting to explain the situation. But they weren't listening as they coward in fear. And the more they tried to explain, the further back their classmates would step. Finally, one of the students stepped forward.

"Please, don't hurt us…we promise we won't tell anyone about this," the student pleaded in fear.

Jesse and Alex shook their heads in laughter and finally began to walk into the school building.

**The End (not really)**

Jesse and Alex graduated valedictorian and salutatorian on May 31, 2007…and went to the same university on marital status. They finally found time to work on their new film at which they titled; "Schoolboy's First Experience"…and then they made another, this time featuring more "people." Their films made millions in the box office…

Kristine and Mark gave birth to Marcus Anthony Andrews III on June 19, at midnight…

Drake was finally arrested and found guilty for rape and attempted murder…he is now serving ten to twenty years in state prison…

Jesse finally achieved his dream of becoming an actor/ director/ producer and writer…with Alex as his assistant…

He finally agreed to marry Alex on his 18th birthday…even though Mark didn't approve of it. He was pissed!

Come to find out, Alex parents didn't die! They had missed their flight because they got caught in traffic. So his mother suggested that they stay at a hotel, only to go to Japan the next day. He, his parents, and his new baby sister, Alexis, were reunited on graduation day…

Ms. Calloway kept her promise and started the first GSA in the High School's history…

For once…a story with a happy ending!


End file.
